County Hampshire Major settlements Southampton Member of parliament Royston Smith Number of members 1 Created from Southampton | Electorate 74,513 (December 2010) European Parliament constituency South East England Major settlement Southampton Replaced by Southampton | |
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Southampton, Itchen is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Royston Smith, a Conservative member of parliament.
Contents
History
The constituency was created in 1950, when the previous two-member Southampton constituency was abolished.
The constituency is named after the River Itchen, which flows through it and is the lesser of the two major rivers that reach the tidal estuary of Southampton Water at the city. Although until the 1970s it was a safe Labour seat, it elected a Conservative MP, Christopher Chope in 1983 and 1987 after the sitting MP Bob Mitchell left Labour in 1981 for the SDP. The combination of Mitchell as a strong SDP-Liberal Alliance candidate in both 1983 and 1987, together with Conservative landslides, made Southampton Itchen highly competitive.
The former Labour MP, John Denham, narrowly defeated Chope by 551 votes in 1992 and held the seat with more substantial majorities until 2010 when he won by just 192 votes. These two election results with marginal majorities, with moderate third-party polling, and the Conservative gain in 2015, indicate Southampton Itchen may now be thought of as a two-party marginal seat.
Royston Smith unexpectedly regained the seat for the Conservative Party in 2015. He had previously led the Conservative group on the city council and had contested the seat in 2010.
Boundaries
1950-1983: The County Borough of Southampton wards of Bevois, Bitterne and Peartree, Bitterne and Sholing, Newtown, Northam, Portswood, St Denys, St Mary's, Trinity, and Woolston.
1983-1997: The City of Southampton wards of Bargate, Bitterne, Bitterne Park, Harefield, Peartree, St Luke's, and Sholing.
1997-present: The City of Southampton wards of Bargate, Bitterne, Bitterne Park, Harefield, Peartree, Sholing, and Woolston.
The seat covers the eastern part of the City of Southampton, in southern England, specifically the city centre, the eastern port areas (the Port of Southampton is one of the principal ports of the UK), the exclusive Ocean Village quarter, the inner city council estates and the economically-deprived Thornhill estate on its eastern boundary. It is seen as the more working class of the two constituencies in the city (the other is Southampton Test – named after the other major river).
The constituency is bounded to the west by Southampton Test (Labour), to the north and east by Eastleigh (Conservative) and in the far north by Romsey and Southampton North (Conservative).
Constituency profile
Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 close to but slightly below than the national average of 3.8%, at 3.5% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian, above the average for the South East seats of 2.5% but below, for example, five seats in East Kent.
Elections in the 2000s
Electorate: 76,603
Elections in the 1990s
Electorate: 76,869