Birmingham East (UK Parliament constituency)

Birmingham East
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	Warwickshire
1885–1918
Number of members	One
Created from	Birmingham

Birmingham East was a parliamentary constituency in the city of Birmingham, England. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first-past-the-post voting system.

The constituency was created upon the abolition of the Birmingham constituency in 1885, and was itself abolished for the 1918 general election.

Boundaries

Before 1885 Birmingham, in the county of Warwickshire, had been a three-member constituency (see Birmingham (UK Parliament constituency) for further details). Under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 the parliamentary borough of Birmingham was split into seven single-member divisions, one of which was Birmingham East. It consisted of the wards of Duddeston and Nechells, the local government district of Saltley, and the hamlet of Little Bromwich.

The division was bounded to the west by Birmingham North, to the north by Aston Manor, to the east by Tamworth and to the south (from west to east) by Birmingham Central, Birmingham South and Birmingham Bordesley.

In the 1918 redistribution of parliamentary seats, the Representation of the People Act 1918 provided for twelve new Birmingham divisions. The East division was abolished.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1885	William Thomas Gustavus Cook	Liberal
	1886	Henry Matthews	Conservative
	1895	Sir John Benjamin Stone	Conservative
	1910 (Jan)	Arthur Steel-Maitland	Conservative
	1918	Constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

December 1910 General Election: Birmingham, East

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Arthur Herbert Drummond Ramsay Steel-Maitland	6,639	67.5	-0.6
	Lib-Lab	John Valentine Stevens	3,190	32.5
Majority			15,244	64.5
Turnout			15,244	64.5
	Conservative hold		Swing

January 1910 General Election: Birmingham, East

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Arthur Herbert Drummond Ramsay Steel-Maitland	8,460	68.1	15.5
	Labour	Joseph James Stephenson	3,958	31.9	-15.5
Majority			4,502	36.2
Turnout			15,244	81.5
	Conservative hold		Swing	15.5

Elections in the 1900s

1906 General Election: Birmingham, East

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir John Benjamin Stone	5,928	52.6	-11.2
	Labour	James Holmes	5,343	47.4
Majority			585	5.2
Turnout			14,469	77.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

1900 General Election: Birmingham, East

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir John Benjamin Stone	4,989	63.8
	Lib-Lab	John Valentine Stevens	2,835	36.2
Majority			2,154	27.6
Turnout			13,070	59.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1890s

1895 General Election: Birmingham, East

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir John Benjamin Stone	unopposed
	Conservative hold		Swing

1892 General Election: Birmingham, East

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Rt. Hon. Henry Matthews	5,041	61.7
	Liberal	Henry Charles Fulford	2,832	34.7
	Independent Liberal	D.S. Collin	296	3.6
Majority			2,209	27.0
Turnout			10,404	78.5
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1880s

Birmingham East by-election, 1886: 11 August 1886

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Rt. Hon. Henry Matthews	unopposed
	Conservative hold		Swing

1886 General Election: Birmingham, East

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Matthews	3,341	56.7	15.3
	Liberal	William Thomas Gustavus Cook	2,552	43.3	-15.3
Majority			789	13.4
Turnout			9,382	62.8
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing

1885 General Election: Birmingham, East

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Thomas Gustavus Cook	4,277	58.6
	Conservative	Francis William Lowe	3,025	41.4
Majority			1,252	17.2
Turnout			9,382	77.8
	Liberal gain from new seat		Swing

In popular culture

Birmingham East was used in BBC sitcom Yes, Minister, and Jim Hacker was its MP.

See also

• List of former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies

References

• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1974)
• Debrett’s Illustrated Heraldic and Biographical House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1886
• Debrett’s House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1901
• Debrett’s House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1918
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 3)