Islington South and Finsbury (UK Parliament constituency)

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
Islington South and Finsbury
Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
120px
Boundary of Islington South and Finsbury in Greater London.
County Greater London
Electorate 67,613 (December 2010)[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
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency London

Islington South and Finsbury /ˈɪzlɪŋtən saʊθ ənd fɪnzbri/ is a constituency[n 1] represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Emily Thornberry of the Labour Party.[n 2]

Boundaries

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

1983-2010: The London Borough of Islington wards of Barnsbury, Bunhill, Canonbury East, Canonbury West, Clerkenwell, Hillmarton, Holloway, St Mary, St Peter, and Thornhill.

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

Islington was an early stronghold for the Social Democratic Party in which 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 of the era, they won only one seat to Labour's 59 in the 1982 Islington Council elections [2] and in the 1983 general election, Labour managed to retain the constituency narrowly. The new MP, Chris Smith was the first MP to come out as gay and was identified with the Labour left, and kept the seat with a slight increase in his majority in 1987. By 1992 the post-merged SDP, the Liberal Democrats, had locally faded 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 translate to Parliamentary elections in 2001. In 2002, the Liberal Democrats won every council seat in Islington South & 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 (484 votes) over the Liberal Democrat challenger, Barnsbury Councilor 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 & 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 in Liberal Democrats lost all their remaining seats on the Council.

Constituency profile

The constituency was in 2005 described as <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

'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".'[5]

And in 2010 as "a seat sometimes seen as the citadel of constitutional reform."[6]

Members of Parliament

Election Member[7] Party
Feb 1974 George Cunningham Labour
1982 SDP
1983 Chris Smith Labour
2005 Emily Thornberry Labour

Election Results

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2015: Islington South and Finsbury[8][9] [10][11][12]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Emily Thornberry 22,547 50.9 +8.7
Conservative Dr Mark Lim 9,839 22.2 +2.8
Liberal Democrat 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 Marvin Kirton 309 0.7 +0.7
Majority 12,708 28.7 +20.5
Turnout 44,270 65.0 +0.6
Labour hold Swing +3.0
General Election 2010: Islington South and Finsbury[13][14]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Emily Thornberry 18,407 42.3 +2.4
Liberal Democrat Mrs Bridget C. Fox 14,838 34.1 −4.2
Conservative Antonia Cox 8,449 19.4 +4.6
Green James Humphreys 710 1.6 −3.1
UKIP Rose-Marie McDonald 701 1.6 +0.1
English Democrats John Dodds 301 0.7 N/A
Animals Count Richard Deboo 149 0.3 N/A
Majority 3,569 8.2
Turnout 43,555 64.4 +10.8
Labour hold Swing +3.3

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Islington South and Finsbury
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Emily Thornberry 12,345 39.9 −14.0
Liberal Democrat Mrs Bridget C. Fox 11,861 38.3 +10.2
Conservative Miss Melanie L. McLean 4,594 14.8 +1.1
Green James Humphreys 1,471 4.8 N/A
UKIP Miss Patricia T. Theophanides 470 1.5 N/A
Monster Raving Loony Andy "the Hat" J.E. Gardner 189 0.6 N/A
Independent Chris Gidden 31 0.1 N/A
Majority 484 1.6
Turnout 30,961 53.6 +6.2
Labour hold Swing −12.1
General Election 2001: Islington South and Finsbury
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Christopher Robert Smith 15,217 53.9 −8.6
Liberal Democrat Keith Sharp 7,937 28.1 +6.8
Conservative Nicola Ann Morgan 3,860 13.7 +0.7
Socialist Alliance Miss Janine Sandra Booth 817 2.9 N/A
Independent Thomas John McCarthy 276 1.0 +0.5
Stuckist Party Charles Geoffrey Thomson 108 0.4 N/A
Majority 7,280 25.8
Turnout 28,215 47.4 −16.3
Labour hold Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Islington South and Finsbury
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Christopher Robert Smith 22,079 62.5
Liberal Democrat Sarah Ludford 7,516 21.3
Conservative David Berens 4,587 13.00
Referendum Jane Bryett 741 2.10
Independent Alan Laws 171 0.5
Natural Law Martin Creese 121 0.3
Independent Erol Basarik 101 0.29
Majority 14,563 41.2
Turnout 35,316 63.7
Labour hold Swing
General Election 1992: Islington South and Finsbury
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Christopher Robert Smith 20,586 51.1 +11.0
Conservative Mark V. Jones 9,934 24.7 +4.1
Liberal Democrat Christopher J. Pryce 9,387 23.3 −
Justice From British Rail Ms. Rhona Hersey 149 0.37
Monster Raving Loony Marie Avino 142 0.35
Natural Law Michael Avino 83 0.21
Majority 10,652 26.44
Turnout 72.52
Labour hold Swing

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: Islington South and Finsbury
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Christopher Robert Smith 16,511 40.06
Social Democratic George Cunningham 15,706 38.10
Conservative Andrew Mitchell 8,482 20.58
Green Peter Carlton Powell 382 0.93
Socialist (GB) Stephen Dowsett 81 0.20
Humanist Judith Helen Early 56 0.14
Majority 805 1.95
Turnout 71.18
Labour hold Swing
General Election 1983: Islington South & Finsbury
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Christopher Robert Smith 13,460 36.31
Social Democratic George Cunningham 13,097 35.33
Conservative Arthur Johnston 9,894 26.69
National Front John B. Donegan 341 0.92
Islington and Finsbury Party J. Murphy 102 0.28
BNP D. Stentiford 94 0.25
Socialist (GB) Clifford Slapper 85 0.23
Majority 363 0.98
Turnout 62.0
Labour hold Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1979: Islington South & 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 N/A
Communist Marie Betteridge 330 1.36 -0.80
New Britain Dennis Delderfield 136 0.56 N/A
Socialist (GB) Ralph Critchfield 78 0.32 N/A
Majority 4,344 17.97
Turnout 62.92
Labour hold Swing
General Election October 1974: Islington South & Finsbury
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour George Cunningham 14,544 61.45 +7.14
Conservative P. Hodgson 3,951 20.92 -2.42
Liberal R. Adams 3,661 15.47 -4.05
Communist Marie Betteridge 512 2.16 +0.39
Majority 9,593 40.53
Turnout 56.02
Labour hold Swing
General Election February 1974: Islington South & 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 66.06
Labour hold Swing

See also

Notes and references

Notes
  1. ↑ A borough constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
  2. ↑ As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years.
  3. ↑ This was at the time when the Labour Party voted for in Conference leaving the EEC (Common Market) and abolishing nuclear weapons during the Cold War which largely triggered the split.
References
  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ http://data.london.gov.uk/documents/LBCE_1982-5-6.pdf pp.40-41
  3. ↑ Personal Website of Bridget Fox
  4. ↑ LDA website document 488
  5. ↑ Constituency Profile written in 2005
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "I" [self-published source][better source needed]
  8. ↑ election result http://www.islington.gov.uk/involved/involvedvoting/votingelection/general-election-2015/Pages/general-elections-results.aspx 23Jul15
  9. ↑ total electorate 68,127 Islington Council email 27Jul15
  10. ↑ http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/2015guide/islingtonsouthandfinsbury/
  11. ↑ http://electionresults.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/islington-south-finsbury-2015.html
  12. ↑ http://www.islington.gov.uk/publicrecords/library/Democracy/Publicity/Public-notices/2015-2016/(2015-04-09)-Statement-of-Persons-Nominated-South.pdf
  13. ↑ http://www.islington.gov.uk/DownloadableDocuments/CouncilandDemocracy/Pdf/electoral/sopn_south.pdf
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Islington_South_and_Finsbury_(UK_Parliament_constituency)&oldid=3388694"