St Helens South (UK Parliament constituency)

St Helens South was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

St Helens South
Former Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of St Helens South in Merseyside for the 2005 general election
Location of Merseyside within England
CountyMerseyside
1983–2010
Number of membersOne
Replaced bySt Helens South and Whiston
Created fromSt Helens, Widnes and Huyton[1]

Boundaries

The Borough of St Helens wards of Eccleston, Grange Park, Marshalls Cross, Parr and Hardshaw, Queen's Park, Rainhill, Sutton and Bold, Thatto Heath, and West Sutton.

The constituency was one of two covering the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, the other being St Helens North. It contained the southern part of the borough including the town centre of St Helens, the south of the town, Clock Face and Rainhill.

Following recommendations made by the Boundary Commission for England, St Helens South was replaced with a new St Helens South and Whiston constituency, which includes three wards from Knowsley borough.

History

The forerunner seat had been represented by members of the Labour Party since 1935.

The constituency was formed in 1983, and was represented by Labour's Gerry Bermingham from then until he stood down in 2001. He was replaced by Shaun Woodward, who had defected from the Conservatives to Labour in December 1999. Woodward was deemed unlikely to retain his Witney constituency in Oxfordshire as a Labour candidate (it was subsequently won by David Cameron, former Leader of the Conservatives and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom), and was instead selected for this safe seat. Woodward had won all three elections however he lost his position in the cabinet because of the Labour party defeat to the Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition government in the 2010 general election.

Members of Parliament
ElectionMember [2] Party
1983 Gerry Bermingham Labour
2001 Shaun Woodward Labour
2010 Constituency abolished: see St Helens South and Whiston

Elections

Elections in the 1980s
General election 1983: St Helens South[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Gerry Bermingham 22,906 46.9
Conservative Richard Bull 13,244 27.1
SDP Philip Briers 10,939 22.2
Independent Melvyn Davies 1,780 3.6
Majority 9,622 19.8
Turnout 48,869 70.6
Labour win (new seat)
General election 1987: St Helens South[4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Gerry Bermingham 27,027 54.6 +7.7
Conservative John Brown 13,226 26.7 −0.4
SDP Philip Briers 9,252 18.7 −3.5
Majority 13,801 27.9 +8.1
Turnout 49,505 71.3 +0.7
Labour hold Swing +4.1

Elections in the 1990s
General election 1992: St. Helens South[5][6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Gerry Bermingham 30,391 61.0 +6.4
Conservative Patricia Buzzard 12,182 24.5 −2.2
Liberal Democrats Brian Spencer 6,933 13.9 −4.8
Natural Law Harriet Jump 295 0.6 New
Majority 18,209 36.5 +8.6
Turnout 49,801 73.8 +2.5
Labour hold Swing +4.3
General election 1997: St Helens South[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Gerry Bermingham 30,367 68.6 +7.6
Conservative Mary Russell 6,628 15.0 −9.5
Liberal Democrats Brian Spencer 5,919 13.4 −0.5
Referendum William Holdaway 1,165 2.6 New
Natural Law Harriet Jump 179 0.4 −0.2
Majority 23,739 53.6 +17.1
Turnout 44,258 66.5 -7.3
Labour hold Swing

Elections in the 2000s
General election 2001: St Helens South[8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Shaun Woodward 16,799 49.7 −18.9
Liberal Democrats Brian Spencer 7,814 23.1 +9.7
Conservative Lee Rotherham 4,675 13.8 −1.2
Socialist Alliance Neil Thompson 2,325 6.9 New
Socialist Labour Michael Perry 1,504 4.4 New
UKIP Bryan Slater 336 1.0 New
Independent Michael Murphy 271 0.8 New
Independent David Braid 80 0.2 New
Majority 8,985 26.6 -27.0
Turnout 33,804 51.4 −15.1
Labour hold Swing
General election 2005: St Helens South[9]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Shaun Woodward 19,345 54.5 +4.8
Liberal Democrats Brian Spencer 10,036 28.3 +5.2
Conservative Una Riley 4,602 13.0 −0.8
UKIP Malcolm Nightingale 847 2.4 +1.4
Socialist Labour Michael Perry 643 1.8 −2.6
Majority 9,309 26.2 -0.4
Turnout 35,473 53.4 +2.0
Labour hold Swing −0.2

See also

Notes and references
  1. "'St Helens South', June 1983 up to May 1997". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  2. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 1)
  3. "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  4. "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  5. "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  6. "UK General Election results April 1992". Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Retrieved 2010-12-06.
  7. "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  8. "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  9. "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
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