County Tyne and Wear European Parliament constituency North East England Number of members 1 | Electorate 76,292 (December 2010) Member of parliament Julie Elliott | |
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Replaced by Sunderland North, Sunderland South Created from Sunderland North, Sunderland South | ||
Sunderland Central is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 2010 creation by Julie Elliott, a member of the Labour Party who was re-elected in the 2015 General Election.
Contents
Boundaries
Parliament accepted the Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which created this constituency for the 2010 general election, with electoral wards:
The review abolished the former Sunderland North and Sunderland South constituencies. The reorganisation also created the Houghton and Sunderland South and Washington and Sunderland West constituencies.
History
This new constituency of Sunderland Central was fought for the first time at the 2010 general election.
Sunderland Central is a slightly more marginal seat than its predecessors with a swing of 12.8% from Labour to the Conservatives required for the latter party to win the seat in 2010. This is because it brings together virtually all of the areas of traditional Conservative strength into one seat, such as Fulwell and St.Michaels.
At the 2009 city council elections, held in thirds, the Conservatives carried five of Sunderland Central's nine wards, with Labour winning three and the Liberal Democrats one. However, at the next city council elections held on the same day as the 2010 general election, the Conservatives carried only two of Sunderland Central's nine wards, with Labour winning seven and the Liberal Democrats none.
Constituency profile
The City of Sunderland spans the River Wear and is southeast of Newcastle upon Tyne, with long distance train and air links, as such it is a base for companies, particularly those requiring a large labour force, including in graphic design and production through to customer service jobs in fields such as insurance and banking. The public sector is also a source of significant employment, providing a wide range of services. Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 higher than the national average of 3.8%, at 6.0% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian, one percentage point higher than Houghton and Sunderland South. Similarly the regional average stood at 5.7%.