Islington South and Finsbury (UK Parliament constituency)

Islington South and Finsbury is a constituency[n 1] created in 1974 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Emily Thornberry of the Labour Party.[n 2] Thornberry served as Shadow Foreign Secretary from 2016 until 2020 and is currently Shadow International Trade Secretary.

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Islington South and Finsbury
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Islington South and Finsbury in Greater London
County	Greater London
Electorate	70,489 (December 2019)[1]
Current constituency
Created	1974 (1974)
Member of Parliament	Emily Thornberry (Labour)
Number of members	One
Created from	Islington South West, and Shoreditch and Finsbury

Boundaries

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1974–1983: The London Borough of Islington wards of Barnsbury, Bunhill, Clerkenwell, Pentonville, St Mary, St Peter, and Thornhill.

1983–2010: As above, save that Pentonville was abolished and Canonbury East, Canonbury West, Hillmarton, Holloway were created or added to the seat.

2010–present: The London Borough of Islington wards of Barnsbury, Bunhill, Caledonian, Canonbury, Clerkenwell, Holloway, St Mary's and St Peter's.

The seat covers the southern part of the London Borough of Islington, including Barnsbury, Canonbury, major parts of Holloway, Kings Cross and the former area of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury, which includes Bunhill, Pentonville and Clerkenwell.

History

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Islington South and Finsbury was created in 1974 from part of the former Islington South West and Shoreditch and Finsbury constituencies. In 1983, its boundaries changed when the Islington Central constituency was abolished and its area split between Islington South and Finsbury and Islington North.

Islington was an early stronghold for the SDP. All three sitting Labour MPs defected to the party together with a majority of the Borough Council.[n 3] However, in spite of their less radical position than the Labour Party, they won only one seat to Labour's 59 in the 1982 Islington Council elections[2] and at the 1983 general election, Labour managed to narrowly retain the seat. The new MP, Chris Smith was the first MP to come out as gay and was aligned with the Labour left, and retained the seat with a slight increase in his majority in 1987. By 1992, the post-merged SDP, the Liberal Democrats, had faded locally, and no longer had the former MP as a candidate, and Smith managed to win a majority exceeding 10,000 votes.

The Liberal Democrat revival in local elections in Islington, which saw them take control of the council in 2000, began to cross over to Parliamentary elections in 2001. In 2002, the Liberal Democrats won every council seat in Islington South and Finsbury, and Smith's subsequent retirement and the resultant loss of incumbency made the constituency vulnerable once again in 2005. However Smith's successor, Emily Thornberry, retained the seat with a narrow majority of 484 votes over the Liberal Democrat challenger, Barnsbury councillor Bridget Fox.[3] — the seat therefore became one of the ten most marginal in Britain. However, in the local council elections a year later, Labour made an almost full recovery locally and won a majority of the seats in Islington South and Finsbury, defeating both Bridget Fox and the-then council leader Steve Hitchins.[4] At the 2010 general election, Thornberry increased her majority over Fox. In 2014 the Liberal Democrats lost all their remaining seats on the Council. The 2015 general election result made the seat the 93rd safest of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority.[5]

Constituency profile

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The area is wholly urban but features a few small public green spaces which are family-friendly. The proximity and connectedness to the City of London mean the seat has a relatively high proportion of its electorate who are young workers in the city and contains many complementary-course or white-painted brickwork— very rarely stucco-clad—apartments and townhouses typically with attractive railings frequently lived in by higher earners in the central or flagship operations of the public sector, critics, entertainers and writers. It contains a small minority of residences that are Victorian and early-twentieth century rehousing developments to replace poor housing closer to the city itself and in the East End of London or late-twentieth century (largely former) social housing.

The constituency has been described as:

'A part-grand, part-poor metaphor for New Labour; Tony Blair lived here prior to his election as prime minister. Its dinner tables are routinely maligned as the natural habitat of the hypocritical, well-off, ostensibly liberal "chattering classes".'

— 2005, The Guardian[6]

The constituency was marginal

'...a seat sometimes seen as the citadel of constitutional reform.'

— 2010, The Guardian[7]

Members of Parliament

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Election		Member[8]	Party
	Feb 1974	George Cunningham	Labour
	Oct 1974
	1979
	1982		SDP
	1983	Chris Smith	Labour
	1987
	1992
	1997
	2001
	2005	Emily Thornberry
	2010
	2015
	2017
	2019

Election results

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Elections in the 2010s

General election 2019: Islington South and Finsbury[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Emily Thornberry	26,897	56.3	−6.5
	Liberal Democrats	Kate Pothalingam	9,569	20.0	+7.9
	Conservative	Jason Charalambous	8,045	16.8	−3.9
	Green	Talia Hussain	1,987	4.2	+1.7
	Brexit Party	Paddy Hannam	1,136	2.4	New
	Monster Raving Loony	Sandys of Bunhill	182	0.4	New
Majority			17,328	36.3	−5.8
Turnout			47,816	67.8	−1.3
Registered electors			70,489
	Labour hold		Swing	-7.2

General election 2017: Islington South and Finsbury[10][11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Emily Thornberry	30,188	62.8	+11.9
	Conservative	Jason Charalambous	9,925	20.7	−1.6
	Liberal Democrats	Alain Desmier	5,809	12.1	+1.2
	Green	Benali Hamdache	1,198	2.5	−5.1
	UKIP	Pete Muswell	929	1.9	−5.7
Majority			20,263	42.1	+13.4
Turnout			48,049	69.1	+4.1
Registered electors			69,536
	Labour hold		Swing	+6.7

General election 2015: Islington South and Finsbury[12][13][14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Emily Thornberry	22,547	50.9	+8.7
	Conservative	Mark Lim	9,839	22.2	+2.8
	Liberal Democrats	Terry Stacy	4,829	10.9	−23.2
	UKIP	Pete Muswell	3,375	7.6	+6.0
	Green	Charlie Kiss	3,371	7.6	+6.0
	CISTA	Jay Kirton	309	0.7	New
Majority			12,708	28.7	+20.5
Turnout			44,270	65.0	+0.6
Registered electors			68,127
	Labour hold		Swing	+3.0

General election 2010: Islington South and Finsbury[15][16][17]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Emily Thornberry	18,407	42.3	+2.4
	Liberal Democrats	Bridget Fox	14,838	34.1	−4.2
	Conservative	Antonia Cox	8,449	19.4	+4.6
	Green	James Humphreys	710	1.6	−3.2
	UKIP	Rose-Marie McDonald	701	1.6	+0.1
	English Democrat	John Dodds	301	0.7	New
	Animals Count	Richard Deboo	149	0.3	New
Majority			3,569	8.2	+6.6
Turnout			43,555	64.4	+10.8
Registered electors			67,650
	Labour hold		Swing	+3.3

Elections in the 2000s

General election 2005: Islington South and Finsbury[18]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Emily Thornberry	12,345	39.9	−14.0
	Liberal Democrats	Bridget Fox	11,861	38.3	+10.2
	Conservative	Melanie McLean	4,594	14.8	+1.1
	Green	James Humphreys	1,471	4.8	New
	UKIP	Patricia Theophanides	470	1.5	New
	Monster Raving Loony	Andy "the Hat" Gardner	189	0.6	New
	Independent	Chris Gidden	31	0.1	New
Majority			484	1.6	-24.2
Turnout			30,961	53.6	+6.2
Registered electors			57,748
	Labour hold		Swing	−12.1

General election 2001: Islington South and Finsbury[19]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Chris Smith	15,217	53.9	−8.6
	Liberal Democrats	Keith Sharp	7,937	28.1	+6.8
	Conservative	Nicky Morgan	3,860	13.7	+0.7
	Socialist Alliance	Janine Booth	817	2.9	New
	Independent	Thomas McCarthy	276	1.0	+0.5
	Stuckist Party	Charles Thomson	108	0.4	New
Majority			7,280	25.8	-15.4
Turnout			28,215	47.4	−16.3
Registered electors			59,516
	Labour hold		Swing	-7.7

Elections in the 1990s

General election 1997: Islington South and Finsbury[20]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Chris Smith	22,079	62.5	+11.4
	Liberal Democrats	Sarah Ludford	7,516	21.3	-2.0
	Conservative	David Berens	4,587	13.0	-11.7
	Referendum	Jane Bryett	741	2.10	New
	Independent	Alan Laws	171	0.5	New
	Natural Law	Martin Creese	121	0.3	+0.09
	Independent	Erol Basarik	101	0.3	New
Majority			14,563	41.2	+14.76
Turnout			35,316	63.7	-8.82
Registered electors			55,468
	Labour hold		Swing	+6.6

General election 1992: Islington South and Finsbury[21]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Chris Smith	20,586	51.1	+11.04
	Conservative	Mark Jones	9,934	24.7	+4.12
	Liberal Democrats	Christopher Pryce	9,387	23.3	New
	Justice From British Rail	Rhona Hersey	149	0.37	New
	Monster Raving Loony	Marie Avino	142	0.35	New
	Natural Law	Michael Avino	83	0.21	New
Majority			10,652	26.4	+24.45
Turnout			40,281	72.5	+1.32
Registered electors			55,541
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1980s

General election 1987: Islington South and Finsbury[22]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Chris Smith	16,511	40.1	+3.8
	SDP	George Cunningham	15,706	38.10	+2.8
	Conservative	Andrew Mitchell	8,482	20.58	−6.1
	Green	Peter Powell	382	0.93	New
	Socialist (GB)	Stephen Dowsett	81	0.20	0.0
	Humanist	Judith Early	56	0.1	New
Majority			805	1.95	+0.9
Turnout			41,218	71.2	+9.2
Registered electors			57,910
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1983: Islington South and Finsbury[23]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Chris Smith	13,460	36.31	-15.73
	SDP	George Cunningham	13,097	35.33	New
	Conservative	Arthur Johnston	9,894	26.69	-7.38
	National Front	John Donegan	341	0.92	-2.49
	Islington and Finsbury Party	J. Murphy	102	0.28	New
	BNP	D. Stentiford	94	0.25	New
	Socialist (GB)	Clifford Slapper	85	0.23	-0.09
Majority			363	0.98	-16.99
Turnout			37,073	62.0	-0.92
Registered electors			59,795
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General election 1979: Islington South and Finsbury

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Cunningham	12,581	52.04	-9.41
	Conservative	Nigel Waterson	8,237	34.07	+13.15
	Liberal	Antony Dean	1,991	8.24	-7.23
	National Front	Paul Kavanagh	824	3.41	New
	Communist	Marie Betteridge	330	1.36	-0.80
	New Britain	Dennis Delderfield	136	0.56	New
	Socialist (GB)	Ralph Critchfield	78	0.32	New
Majority			4,344	17.97	-22.56
Turnout			24,177	62.92	+6.9
Registered electors			38,427
	Labour hold		Swing

General election October 1974: Islington South and Finsbury

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Cunningham	14,544	61.45	+7.1
	Conservative	P. Hodgson	3,951	20.92	−2.4
	Liberal	R. Adams	3,661	15.47	−4.1
	Communist	Marie Betteridge	512	2.2	+0.4
Majority			9,593	40.5	+9.6
Turnout			22,668	56.0	−10.1
Registered electors			42,251
	Labour hold		Swing

General election February 1974: Islington South and Finsbury

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Cunningham	15,064	54.31
	Conservative	J. Szemerey	6,473	23.34
	Liberal	R. Adams	5,415	19.52
	Communist	Marie Betteridge	492	1.77
	Independent	A. Lomas	293	1.06
Majority			8,591	30.97
Turnout			27,737	66.06
Registered electors			41,988
	Labour win (new seat)

See also

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• List of Parliamentary constituencies in London
• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Islington

Notes and references

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Notes

References