County Tyne and Wear Created 1832 Number of members One | Electorate 82,294(2011) Member of parliament Emma Lewell-Buck Created from County Durham | |
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South Shields 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. It has been represented by Emma Lewell-Buck of the Labour Party since 2013.
Contents
Boundaries
1918-1983: The County Borough of South Shields.
1983-1997: The Metropolitan Borough of South Tyneside wards of All Saints, Beacon and Bents, Cleadon Park, Harton, Horsley Hill, Rekendyke, Tyne Dock and Simonside, Westoe, West Park, and Whiteleas.
1997-2010: The Metropolitan Borough of South Tyneside wards of All Saints, Beacon and Bents, Biddick Hall, Cleadon Park, Harton, Horsley Hill, Rekendyke, Tyne Dock and Simonside, Westoe, West Park, and Whiteleas.
2010-present: The Metropolitan Borough of South Tyneside wards of Beacon and Bents, Biddick and All Saints, Cleadon Park, Harton, Horsley Hill, Simonside and Rekendyke, Westoe, West Park, Whitburn and Marsden, and Whiteleas.
The current constituency covers the area of South Shields in the South Tyneside district of Tyne and Wear. Boundary changes at the 2010 general election transferred the community of Whitburn into the South Shields constituency from the neighbouring Jarrow seat.
Members of Parliament
The seat was held from 2001 to 2013 by David Miliband, who served as Foreign Secretary from 2007 until Labour's general election defeat of 2010. On 26 March 2013 Miliband announced his resignation from Parliament in order to take up a post as the head of the International Rescue Committee in New York City.
With two exceptions (Arthur Blenkinsop and Emma Lewell-Buck) every South Shields MP since 1929 has been a cabinet member at some point in their career. Two of them, Chuter Ede (Home Secretary) and Miliband (Foreign Secretary), have held one of the great offices of state while MP for South Shields. It is the only constituency in existence since the Great Reform Act of 1832 never to have elected a Conservative MP.