Wolverhampton South West
Encyclopedia
Wolverhampton South West is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
. It elects one Member of Parliament
(MP) by the first past the post system of election.
, covering the city centre (including the University
and Civic Centre) as well as western and south-western parts of the city.
The boundaries run south from the city centre towards Penn
and north-west towards Tettenhall
. There are seven wards in the seat: Graiseley
, Merry Hill
, Park
, Penn
, St Peter's
, Tettenhall Regis
and Tettenhall Wightwick
.
St Peter's, Graiseley and the east of Park are relatively deprived inner city wards, with significant ethnic minority populations, mainly of Asian
origin. Park and Merry Hill are suburban. Penn, Tettenhall Regis and Tettenhall Wightwick are affluent suburbs on the western fringe of the West Midlands conurbation.
safe seat
until Labour
gained it in their 1997 landslide.
The constituency is heavily associated with the controversial Conservative politician Enoch Powell
who was MP for the seat from 1950 until 1974, when he departed to the Ulster Unionist Party
. It was during this time that he served in Ted Heath's
shadow cabinet
, from which he was dismissed in 1968 after his controversial Rivers of Blood speech in which he predicted severe civil unrest if mass immigration from the Commonwealth
continued. This speech was reportedly the result of Powell's meeting with a woman in the constituency who was the last white person living in her street.
He was succeeded by fellow Conservative Nicholas Budgen
, who held the seat until 1997. Budgen is best known as one of the Maastricht rebels
of the mid 1990s. He was defeated in the 1997 election
by Labour's Jenny Jones
, the seat being one of many gained by Labour from the Conservatives in that election. As the next general election loomed, she announced that she would not be seeking re-election. From the 2001 general election
, the constituency was represented by Rob Marris
of the Labour Party for nine years, until he lost it in the 2010 general election to Paul Uppal
of the Conservative Party.
Of trivial note both Rob Marris
and Nicholas Budgen
were former pupils of St Edward's School in Oxford
.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
. It elects one Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Boundaries
Wolverhampton South West is one of three constituencies covering the city of WolverhamptonWolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
, covering the city centre (including the University
University of Wolverhampton
The University of Wolverhampton is a British university located on four campuses across the West Midlands and Shropshire. The city campus is located in Wolverhampton city centre with a second campus at Compton Park, Wolverhampton; a third in Walsall and a fourth in Telford...
and Civic Centre) as well as western and south-western parts of the city.
The boundaries run south from the city centre towards Penn
Penn, West Midlands
Penn is an area now divided between Wolverhampton in the West Midlands and South Staffordshire. Originally, it was a village in the historic county of Staffordshire. There is considerable confusion about exactly which areas fall within Penn...
and north-west towards Tettenhall
Tettenhall
Tettenhall is a historic part of the city of Wolverhampton, England. The name Tettenhall is probably derived from Teotta's Halh, Teotta being a person's name and Halh being a sheltered position...
. There are seven wards in the seat: Graiseley
Graiseley
Graiseley is both an inner-city area of Wolverhampton, situated immediately to the south-west of the city centre, and the name of a ward of Wolverhampton City Council.-Place-name:...
, Merry Hill
Merry Hill, Wolverhampton
Merry Hill is a suburb of Wolverhampton, West Midlands and a ward of Wolverhampton City Council. It is situated in the south-west of the city, bordering South Staffordshire and the Tettenhall Wightwick, Park, Graiseley and Penn wards...
, Park
Park ward, Wolverhampton
Park ward is a ward of Wolverhampton City Council, West Midlands. It is located to the west of the city centre, and covers parts of the suburbs Bradmore, Compton, Finchfield, Merridale, Newbridge and Whitmore Reans. It borders the St Peter's, Graiseley, Merry Hill, Tettenhall Wightwick and...
, Penn
Penn, West Midlands
Penn is an area now divided between Wolverhampton in the West Midlands and South Staffordshire. Originally, it was a village in the historic county of Staffordshire. There is considerable confusion about exactly which areas fall within Penn...
, St Peter's
St Peter's ward, Wolverhampton
St Peter's is a ward of Wolverhampton City Council, West Midlands. It has two parts: the city centre , and the inner-city areas immediately to the north and north-west, including Dunstall Hill and part of Whitmore Reans.It is bordered by the wards of Bushbury South and Low Hill, Heath Town, East...
, Tettenhall Regis
Tettenhall Regis
Tettenhall Regis is a ward of Wolverhampton City Council, West Midlands.-Geography:It is one of two wards covering the Tettenhall area, the other being Tettenhall Wightwick. It is situated on the western edge of the city, bordering South Staffordshire and the Oxley, St Peter's, Park and Tettenhall...
and Tettenhall Wightwick
Tettenhall Wightwick
Tettenhall Wightwick is a ward of Wolverhampton City Council, West Midlands.-Geography:It is one of two wards covering the Tettenhall area, the other being Tettenhall Regis. It is situated on the western edge of the city, bordering South Staffordshire and the Tettenhall Regis, Park and Merry Hill...
.
St Peter's, Graiseley and the east of Park are relatively deprived inner city wards, with significant ethnic minority populations, mainly of Asian
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
origin. Park and Merry Hill are suburban. Penn, Tettenhall Regis and Tettenhall Wightwick are affluent suburbs on the western fringe of the West Midlands conurbation.
History
Wolverhampton South West was once regarded as a ConservativeConservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
safe seat
Safe seat
A safe seat is a seat in a legislative body which is regarded as fully secured, either by a certain political party, the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both...
until Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
gained it in their 1997 landslide.
The constituency is heavily associated with the controversial Conservative politician Enoch Powell
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, MBE was a British politician, classical scholar, poet, writer, and soldier. He served as a Conservative Party MP and Minister of Health . He attained most prominence in 1968, when he made the controversial Rivers of Blood speech in opposition to mass immigration from...
who was MP for the seat from 1950 until 1974, when he departed to the Ulster Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
. It was during this time that he served in Ted Heath's
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....
shadow cabinet
Shadow Cabinet
The Shadow Cabinet is a senior group of opposition spokespeople in the Westminster system of government who together under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition form an alternative cabinet to the government's, whose members shadow or mark each individual member of the government...
, from which he was dismissed in 1968 after his controversial Rivers of Blood speech in which he predicted severe civil unrest if mass immigration from the Commonwealth
Commonwealth
Commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has sometimes been synonymous with "republic."More recently it has been used for fraternal associations of some sovereign nations...
continued. This speech was reportedly the result of Powell's meeting with a woman in the constituency who was the last white person living in her street.
He was succeeded by fellow Conservative Nicholas Budgen
Nicholas Budgen
Nicholas William Budgen , often called Nick Budgen, was a British Conservative Party politician.Named after St...
, who held the seat until 1997. Budgen is best known as one of the Maastricht rebels
Maastricht Rebels
The Maastricht Rebels were British Members of Parliament belonging to the then governing Conservative Party who refused to support the government of John Major in a series of votes in the House of Commons on the issue of the implementation of the Maastricht Treaty in British law.The Maastrict...
of the mid 1990s. He was defeated in the 1997 election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
by Labour's Jenny Jones
Jenny Jones (Labour politician)
Jennifer Grace Jones is a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom.Jones was selected to stand for election for Labour through an all-women shortlist. This method of selection was subsequently declared illegal in January 1996 as it breached sex discrimination laws...
, the seat being one of many gained by Labour from the Conservatives in that election. As the next general election loomed, she announced that she would not be seeking re-election. From the 2001 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...
, the constituency was represented by Rob Marris
Rob Marris
Robert Howard Marris is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South West from 2001 to 2010....
of the Labour Party for nine years, until he lost it in the 2010 general election to Paul Uppal
Paul Uppal
Paul Singh Uppal is a Conservative Party politician from the United Kingdom. He was elected as the Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South West in the 2010 general election, winning the seat from the Labour Party sitting MP Rob Marris, with 16,344 votes and a majority of 691.-Early life:Uppal...
of the Conservative Party.
Of trivial note both Rob Marris
Rob Marris
Robert Howard Marris is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South West from 2001 to 2010....
and Nicholas Budgen
Nicholas Budgen
Nicholas William Budgen , often called Nick Budgen, was a British Conservative Party politician.Named after St...
were former pupils of St Edward's School in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
.
Members of Parliament
| Election | Member | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 United Kingdom general election, 1950 The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five... |
Enoch Powell Enoch Powell John Enoch Powell, MBE was a British politician, classical scholar, poet, writer, and soldier. He served as a Conservative Party MP and Minister of Health . He attained most prominence in 1968, when he made the controversial Rivers of Blood speech in opposition to mass immigration from... |
Conservative Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House... |
|
| Feb 1974 United Kingdom general election, February 1974 The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,... |
Nicholas Budgen Nicholas Budgen Nicholas William Budgen , often called Nick Budgen, was a British Conservative Party politician.Named after St... |
Conservative Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House... |
|
| 1997 United Kingdom general election, 1997 The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general... |
Jenny Jones Jenny Jones (Labour politician) Jennifer Grace Jones is a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom.Jones was selected to stand for election for Labour through an all-women shortlist. This method of selection was subsequently declared illegal in January 1996 as it breached sex discrimination laws... |
Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after... |
|
| 2001 United Kingdom general election, 2001 The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats... |
Rob Marris Rob Marris Robert Howard Marris is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South West from 2001 to 2010.... |
Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after... |
|
| 2010 | Paul Uppal Paul Uppal Paul Singh Uppal is a Conservative Party politician from the United Kingdom. He was elected as the Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South West in the 2010 general election, winning the seat from the Labour Party sitting MP Rob Marris, with 16,344 votes and a majority of 691.-Early life:Uppal... |
Conservative Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House... |
|
Elections in the 2010s
Elections in the 2000s
Elections in the 1990s
Elections in the 1980s
----Elections in the 1970s
----Elections in the 1960s
Elections in the 1950s
----See also
- List of Members of Parliament for Wolverhampton
- List of Parliamentary constituencies in Wolverhampton
- List of Parliamentary constituencies in the West Midlands (county)