Southampton Test (UK Parliament constituency)

Southampton Test
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Southampton Test in Hampshire.
Location of Hampshire within England.
County	Hampshire
Electorate	71,263 (December 2010)[1]
Major settlements	Southampton
Current constituency
Created	1950
Member of parliament	Alan Whitehead (Labour)
Number of members	One
Created from	Southampton
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	South East England

Southampton Test is a constituency^{[n 1]} represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by Alan Whitehead, a member of the Labour Party.^{[n 2]}

History

The constituency was created for the 1950 general election, when the previous two-member Southampton constituency was abolished.

Horace King, after being the member in the first half of the 1950s, would later become the first Speaker of the House of Commons from the Labour Party.

Southampton Test proved to be a bellwether (mirroring the national result) from 1966 until 2010, with the exception of the minority government of Harold Wilson from February to October 1974 (see Second Wilson Ministry).

Whitehead for Labour performed better here than John Denham in the other Southampton seat, which the party also held in the 2010 general election. The area is, from 2010, one of only four Labour seats left in South East England.^[2]

Constituency profile

The seat covers the western part of the City of Southampton and is named after the River Test, one of the city's two rivers. It covers the leafy northern suburbs and the western port areas as well as the social housing estates of the western fringes. It is traditionally the marginally more affluent of the two constituencies in the city, before 2010 having a higher number of Tory representatives than its neighbour Southampton Itchen — named after the other major river. The area includes the University of Southampton.

Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 close to but slightly below than the national average of 3.8%, at 3.4% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian, above the average for the South East seats of 2.5% but below, for example, five seats in East Kent.^[3]

The seat is home to Southampton FC's football ground at St Mary's.

Boundaries

The seat has electoral wards (with their associated neighbourhoods annotated):

• Bevois,^{[n 3]} Coxford,^{[n 4]} Freemantle,^{[n 5]} Millbrook,^{[n 6]} Portswood,^{[n 7]} Redbridge^{[n 8]} and Shirley^{[n 9]} in the City of Southampton

The constituency is bounded to the east by Southampton Itchen, to the north by Romsey and Southampton North and to the west by New Forest East.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member[4]	Party	Notes
	1950	Horace King	Labour	Speaker of the House of Commons
	1955	John Howard	Conservative
	1964	John Fletcher-Cooke	Conservative
	1966	Bob Mitchell	Labour
	1970	James Hill	Conservative
	Oct 1974	Bryan Gould	Labour	Part of the Shadow Cabinet from 1986 to 1994
	1979	James Hill	Conservative
	1997	Alan Whitehead	Labour

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2015: Southampton Test [5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	TUSC	Nick Chaffey
	Independent	Chris Davis[6]
	Liberal Democrat	Adrian Ford
	UKIP	Pearline Hingston[7]
	Green	Angela Mawle
	Conservative	Jeremy Moulton
	Labour	Alan Whitehead

General Election 2010: Southampton Test[8][9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alan Whitehead	17,001	38.5	-5.7
	Conservative	Jeremy Moulton	14,588	33.0	+8.0
	Liberal Democrat	Dave Callaghan	9,865	22.3	-1.8
	UKIP	Pearline Hingston	1,726	3.9	+0.9
	Green	Chris Bluemel	881	2.0	-1.6
Majority			2,413	5.5
Turnout			44,187	61.4	+5.4
	Labour hold		Swing	−6.9

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alan Whitehead	17,845	42.7	−9.8
	Conservative	Stephen MacLoughlin	10,827	25.9	+0.4
	Liberal Democrat	Steve Sollitt	10,368	24.8	+6.7
	Green	John Spottiswoode	1,482	3.5	N/A
	UKIP	Peter Day	1,261	3.0	+1.1
Majority			7,018	16.8
Turnout			41,783	53.7	−2.6
	Labour hold		Swing	−5.1

General Election 2001: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alan Whitehead	21,824	52.5	-1.7
	Conservative	Richard Gueterbock	10,617	25.5	-2.5
	Liberal Democrat	John Shaw	7,522	18.1	+4.4
	UKIP	Garry Rankin-Moore	792	1.9	+1.5
	Socialist Alliance	Mark Abel	442	1.1	N/A
	Socialist Labour	Paramjit Bahia	378	0.9	N/A
Majority			11,207	27.0
Turnout			41,575	56.3	-15.4
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alan Whitehead	28,396	54.1	+11.7
	Conservative	James Hill	14,712	28.1	−15.3
	Liberal Democrat	Alan Dowden	7,171	13.7	+0.6
	Referendum Party	Peter Day	1,397	2.7
	Legalise Cannabis	Howard Marks	388	0.7
	UKIP	A.M. McCabe	219	0.4	N/A
	Independent	P Taylor	81	0.2	N/A
	Natural Law	J Sinel	77	0.1	N/A
Majority			13,684
Turnout				71.9
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

General Election 1992: Southampton Test[10][11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Hill	24,504	43.4	−2.2
	Labour	Alan Whitehead	23,919	42.4	+9.1
	Liberal Democrat	Diana Maddock	7,391	13.1	−8.1
	Green	Jonathan M. Michaelis	535	0.9	+0.9
	Natural Law	David Plummer	101	0.2	+0.2
Majority			585	1.0	−11.3
Turnout			56,450	77.4	+1.0
	Conservative hold		Swing	−5.6

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Hill	25,722	45.6	+0.4
	Labour	Alan Whitehead	18,768	33.3	+5.2
	Liberal	V. Rayner	11,950	21.2	-5.5
Majority			6,954	12.3	-4.8
Turnout				76.4	+3.3
	Conservative hold		Swing	-2.4

General Election 1983: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Hill	24,657	45.19
	Labour	Alan Whitehead	15,311	28.06
	Social Democratic	A. Vinson	14,592	26.74
Majority			9,346	17.13
Turnout				73.07
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1979: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Hill	27,198	46.36
	Labour	Bryan Gould	25,075	42.74
	Liberal	D. Hughes	6,393	10.90
Majority			2,123	3.62
Turnout				76.30
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

General Election October 1974: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Bryan Gould	22,780	42.17
	Conservative	James Hill	22,250	41.109
	Liberal	J.R. Wallis	8,994	16.65
Majority			530	0.98
Turnout				73.11
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

General Election February 1974: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Hill	23,742	40.88
	Labour	Bryan Gould	22,339	38.46
	Liberal	J.R. Wallis	12,000	20.66
Majority			1,403	2.42
Turnout				79.21
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1970: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Hill	24,660	47.54
	Labour	Bob Mitchell	22,858	44.07
	Liberal	J.R. Wallis	4,349	8.38
Majority			1,802	3.47
Turnout				73.33
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General Election 1966: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Bob Mitchell	24,628	48.37
	Conservative	John Fletcher-Cooke	22,188	43.58
	Liberal	G.A.W. Cleverley	4,102	8.06
Majority			2,440	4.79
Turnout				78.13
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

General Election 1964: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Fletcher-Cooke	25,700	50.34
	Labour	Bob Mitchell	25,352	49.66
Majority			348	0.68
Turnout				76.69
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1959: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Howard	30,176	56.31
	Labour	S.V.T.B. Williams	23,410	43.69
Majority			6,766	12.63
Turnout				79.88
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1955: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Howard	26,707	51.21
	Labour	C.A.R. Crosland	22,865	43.84
	Liberal	Stanley Little	2,583	4.95
Majority			3,842	7.37
Turnout				78.72
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

General Election 1951: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Horace King	26,430	50.44
	Liberal National	J.A. Paul	25,965	49.56
Majority			465	0.89
Turnout				83.52
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1950: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Horace King	25,052	47.08
	Liberal National	P. Brembridge	23,663	45.15
	Liberal	Stephen Fry	3,697	7.05
Majority			1,389	2.65
Turnout				84.39
	Labour hold		Swing

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Hampshire

Notes and references

Notes

References

Constituencies in South East England (84) Conservative (73) Aldershot Arundel and South Downs Ashford Aylesbury Banbury Basingstoke Beaconsfield Bexhill and Battle Bognor Regis and Littlehampton Bracknell Brighton Kemptown Canterbury Chatham and Aylesford Chesham and Amersham Chichester Crawley Dartford Dover East Hampshire East Surrey East Worthing and Shoreham Epsom and Ewell Esher and Walton Fareham Faversham and Mid Kent Folkestone and Hythe Gillingham and Rainham Gosport Gravesham Guildford Hastings and Rye Havant Henley Horsham Hove Isle of Wight Maidenhead Maidstone and The Weald Meon Valley Mid Sussex Milton Keynes North Milton Keynes South Mole Valley Newbury New Forest East New Forest West North East Hampshire North Thanet North West Hampshire Oxford West and Abingdon Portsmouth North Reading East Reading West Reigate Romsey and Southampton North Runnymede and Weybridge Sevenoaks Sittingbourne and Sheppey South Thanet South West Surrey Spelthorne Surrey Heath Tonbridge and Malling Tunbridge Wells Wantage Wealden Winchester Windsor Witney Woking Wokingham Worthing West Wycombe Labour (4) Oxford East Slough Southampton Itchen Southampton Test Liberal Democrats (3) Eastbourne Lewes Eastleigh Green (1) Brighton Pavilion UKIP (1) Rochester and Strood Independent (1) Portsmouth South Speaker (1) Buckingham South East England European constituency: UKIP (4) Conservative (3) Green (1) Labour (1) Liberal Democrats (1)

Areas and suburbs of Southampton City of Southampton electoral wards (and their neighbourhoods) listed by constituency — sources: 1 2 Southampton Itchen Bargate Ward City Centre Holyrood estate Ocean Village The Polygon St Mary's Bitterne Ward Bitterne Thornhill Bitterne Park Ward Bitterne Park Bitterne Manor Midanbury Townhill Park Harefield Ward Harefield Peartree Ward Peartree Green Sholing Ward Sholing Woolston Ward Itchen Ferry village Woolston Weston Southampton Test Bevois Ward Bevois Valley Inner Avenue Nicholstown Northam Coxford Ward Lordshill Lordswood Freemantle Ward Freemantle Millbrook Ward Millbrook Regents Park Portswood Ward Portswood Highfield St Denys Redbridge Ward Redbridge Maybush Shirley Ward Shirley Southampton Common Romsey and Southampton North Bassett Ward Bassett Bassett Green Swaythling Ward Swaythling Mansbridge   Map City Centre Bassett Bassett Green Bevois Valley Bitterne Bitterne Park Bitterne Manor Freemantle Harefield Highfield Lordshill Lordswood Mansbridge Maybush Midanbury Millbrook Nicholstown Northam Ocean Village Peartree Green Polygon Portswood Redbridge Regents Park Shirley St Denys St Mary's Sholing Swaythling Thornhill Townhill Park Woolston Weston Suburbs of Southampton within the city boundary Areas of Greater Southampton outside the City boundary include: Allbrook and North Boyatt Ashurst Bishopstoke Botley Bursledon Chandler's Ford Chartwell Green Chilworth Fair Oak Hamble-le-Rice Hedge End Horton Heath Hound Netley Netley Marsh Nursling Rownhams Eastleigh Totton West End

Coordinates: 50°56′N 1°25′W / 50.933°N 1.417°W / 50.933; -1.417