Leeds South (UK Parliament constituency)

Leeds South
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	1885–1974: West Riding of Yorkshire 1974–1983: West Yorkshire
1885–1983
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Morley and Leeds South
Created from	Leeds

Leeds South was a parliamentary constituency in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 until it was abolished for the 1983 general election. It was then largely replaced by the new Morley and Leeds South constituency.

It was the seat of the former Leader of the Labour Party, the late Hugh Gaitskell, and the former Home Secretary Merlyn Rees.

History

The constituency was created in 1885 by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, and was first used in the general election of that year. Leeds had previously been represented by two MPs (1832–1868) and three MPs (1868–1885). From 1885 it was represented by five single-member constituencies: Leeds Central, Leeds East, Leeds North, Leeds South and Leeds West. The constituencies of Morley, Otley and Pudsey were also created in 1885.

The constituency was abolished for the 1983 general election. It was then largely replaced by the new Morley and Leeds South constituency. After the 1983 general election Leeds was represented by the constituencies of Leeds Central, Leeds East, Leeds North East, Leeds North West, Leeds West and Morley and Leeds South. There were also constituencies of Elmet (created 1983) and Pudsey.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1885	Sir Lyon Playfair	Liberal
	1892 by-election	Sir John Lawson Walton	Liberal
	1908 by-election	William Middlebrook	Coalition Liberal
	1922	Henry Charleton	Labour
	1931	Noel Whiteside	Conservative
	1935	Henry Charleton	Labour
	1945	Hugh Gaitskell	Labour
	1963 by-election	Merlyn Rees	Labour
1983		constituency abolished

Election Results

Election in the 1970s

General Election 1979: Leeds South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Merlyn Rees	22,388	65.02
	Conservative	R. Ratcliffe	8,058	23.40
	Liberal	F. Hurst	3,568	10.36
	National Front	B. Spink	416	1.21
Majority			14,330	41.62
Turnout				68.70
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election October 1974: Leeds South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Merlyn Rees	21,653	64.44
	Conservative	T. Stow	6,388	19.01
	Liberal	J. Adams	5,563	16.55
Majority			15,265	45.43
Turnout				63.76
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election February 1974: Leeds South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Merlyn Rees	21,365	55.24
	Liberal	D. Pedder	9,505	24.57
	Conservative	P.D. Harmer	7,810	20.19
Majority			11,860	30.66
Turnout				73.95
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1970: Leeds South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Merlyn Rees	19,536	59.82
	Conservative	G.K. Macpherson	9,311	28.51
	Liberal	S. Cooksey	3,810	11.67
Majority			10,225	31.31
Turnout				65.95
	Labour hold		Swing

Election in the 1960s

General Election 1966: Leeds South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Merlyn Rees	23,171	68.76
	Conservative	P.A. Woodward	9,813	29.12
	Communist	Bert Ramelson	714	2.12
Majority			13,358	39.63
Turnout				68.11
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1964: Leeds South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Merlyn Rees	22,339
	Conservative	P.A. Woodward	12,123	34.26
	Communist	Bert Ramelson	928	2.62
Majority			10,997	19.14
Turnout				72.00
	Labour hold		Swing

Leeds South by-election, 1963
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Merlyn Rees	18,785	62.9
	Conservative	J. Udal	5,996	20.1
	Liberal	B. Walsh	4,399	14.7
	Communist	Bert Ramelson	670	2.2
Majority			12,789
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1959: Leeds South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Hugh Gaitskell	24,442	58.56
	Conservative	J.F.W. Addey	12,956	31.04
	Liberal	J.B. Meeks	4,340	10.40
Majority			11,486	27.52
Turnout				79.02
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1955: Leeds South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Hugh Gaitskell	25,833	65.15
	Conservative	W.D. Brown	13,817	34.85
Majority			12,016	30.31
Turnout				72.85
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1951: Leeds South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Hugh Gaitskell	30,712	65.06
	Conservative	W.D. Brown	16,493	34.94
Majority			14,219	30.12
Turnout				82.19
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1950: Leeds South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Hugh Gaitskell	29,795	61.11
	Conservative	B.H. Wood	14,436	29.61
	Liberal	Edgar Meeks	4,525	9.28
Majority			15,359	31.50
Turnout				84.61
	Labour hold		Swing

Election in the 1940s

General Election 1945: Leeds South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell	17,899	61.03
	Conservative	Arthur Maxwell Ramsden	7,497	25.56
	Liberal	William Barford	3,933	13.41
Majority			10,402	35.47
Turnout				75.95
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1939/40: Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the Autumn of 1939, the following candidates had been selected;

Labour: Hugh Gaitskell^[1]
Conservative: Donald Kaberry^[2]
Liberal: Alun Williams^[3]
British Union: J A Macnab

General Election 1935: Leeds South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Henry Charleton	15,223	46.03
	Conservative	Noel Whiteside	14,207	42.96
	Social Credit	W. Townend	3,642	11.01
Majority			1,016	3.07
Turnout				73.68
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

General Election 1931: Leeds South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Noel Whiteside	14,881	42.12
	Labour	Henry Charleton	14,156	40.07
	Liberal	F. Boult	6,291	17.81
Majority			725	2.05
Turnout				77.56
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

Elections in the 1910s

William Middlebrook

General Election 14 December 1918:
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir William Middlebrook	10,609
	Labour	Frank Fountain	5,510
	Independent	James A Brook	1,377
Majority			5,099
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

General Election December 1910:
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Middlebrook	6,064
	Conservative	William Nicholson	3,804
	Labour	John Badlay	2,706
Majority			2,260
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

General Election January 1910:
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Middlebrook
	Conservative	William Nicholson
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

Leeds South by-election, 1908
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Middlebrook	5,274	41.7
	Conservative	Reginald Neville	4,915	38.9
	Labour	Albert Fox	2,451	19.4
Majority			359	2.8
Turnout				82.5
	Liberal hold		Swing

References

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "L" (part 1)

↑ Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer 31 March 1939
↑ Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer 31 March 1939
↑ Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer 6 June 1939

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Bristol South East	Constituency represented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer 1950–1951	Succeeded by Saffron Walden
Preceded by Lewisham South	Constituency represented by the Leader of the Opposition 1955–1963	Succeeded by Belper

Leeds Constituencies

Current	Elmet and Rothwell Leeds Central Leeds East Leeds North East Leeds North West Leeds West Morley and Outwood Pudsey

Historic	Leeds (1832–1885) Leeds North (1885-1955) Leeds South (1885-1983) Pudsey and Otley (1918-1950) Batley and Morley (1918-1983) Leeds South East (1918-1983) Morley and Leeds South (1983-1997) Elmet (1983-2010) Morley and Rothwell (1997-2010)