St_Helens_South_(UK_Parliament_constituency)
St Helens South (UK Parliament constituency)
Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1983–2010
53.448°N 2.731°W / 53.448; -2.731
| 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 | |
| County | Merseyside |
| 1983–2010 | |
| Seats | One |
| Created from | St Helens, Widnes and Huyton[1] |
| Replaced by | St Helens South and Whiston |
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2009) |
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.
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.
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.
| Election | Member [2] | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Gerry Bermingham | Labour | |
| 2001 | Shaun Woodward | Labour | |
| 2010 | Constituency abolished: see St Helens South and Whiston | ||
Elections in the 1980s
| 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) | |||||
| 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
| 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 | |||
| 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
| 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 | ||||
| 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 | |||
- "'St Helens South', June 1983 up to May 1997". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
- "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- "UK General Election results April 1992". Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
- "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.