West Bromwich West (UK Parliament constituency)

West Bromwich West
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of West Bromwich West in West Midlands.
Location of West Midlands within England.
County	West Midlands
Electorate	65,249 (December 2010)[1]
Major settlements	Tipton and Wednesbury
Current constituency
Created	1974
Member of parliament	Adrian Bailey (Labour Co-op)
Number of members	One
Created from	West Bromwich
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	West Midlands

West Bromwich West is a constituency^{[n 1]} represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2000 by Adrian Bailey, a member of the Labour Party and of the Cooperative Party.^{[n 2]}

Boundaries

1974-1983: The County Borough of West Bromwich wards of Greets Green, Hill Top, Horseley Heath, Lyng, Market, Tibbington, Tipton Green, and Wood Green.

1983-1997: The Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell wards of Great Bridge, Greets Green and Lyng, Princes End, Tipton Green, Wednesbury North, and Wednesbury South.

1997-present: The Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell wards of Great Bridge, Oldbury, Princes End, Tipton Green, Tividale, Wednesbury North, and Wednesbury South.

West Bromwich West is one of four constituencies covering the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, covering its west and north-west. Main settlements are the towns of Tipton and Wednesbury, others the villages or suburbs of Great Bridge, Princes End and Tividale.

History

The constituency was created in 1974 and took its present boundaries (except for partial ward shares with West Bromwich East) in 1997.

Political history

The seat has been held by either the Labour Party or one of its members as the Speaker of the House of Commons since its creation - the most marginal majority in 2005 was still a majority of 16.3% of the vote.

At local level, Labour safely hold most of the wards of the constituency, who were, from 2008 until 2012 followed by the controversial British National Party who held four councillors, ahead of the Conservatives with three, hence a fairly strong BNP showing in the 2005 general election, receiving nearly 10% of the vote.

Prominent frontbenchers

From 1974 until 2000 this was the constituency of Betty Boothroyd, who was first elected for the former West Bromwich in its by-election in 1973 and became the first woman to be Speaker of the House of Commons in 1992. She retired as Speaker in 2000.^{[n 3]} The ensuing by-election was won by Labour Co-operative candidate Adrian Bailey, who has held the seat to date.

Constituency profile

Wednesbury and Tipton are economic centres and historic towns with considerable suburbs although overshadowed in the service sector by nearby Birmingham. Since the recessions of the 1970s and early 1980s, West Bromwich West has suffered from an acute, stubbornly great minority of unemployment, and as a result of the current recession which began in 2008 unemployment peaked at 14.3%. Only Birmingham, Ladywood nearby had higher unemployment rates in all of Britain.^[2]

Workless claimants who were registered jobseekers were in November 2012 higher than the national average of 3.8%, at 8.1% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian, this also exceeded the regional average of 4.7% of those of working age in receipt of this benefit, which is seen as the lower gauge of the breadth of unemployment.^[3]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member[4]	Party
	Feb 1974	Betty Boothroyd	Labour
	1992		Speaker
	2000 by-election	Adrian Bailey	Labour Co-op

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2015: West Bromwich West^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour Co-op	Adrian Bailey	16,578	47.3	+2.4
	UKIP	Graham Eardley	8,836	25.2	+20.9
	Conservative	Paul Ratner[6]	8,365	23.9	-5.5
	Green	Mark Redding	697	2.0	+2.0
	Liberal Democrat	Karen Trench[7]	550	1.6	-10.4
Majority			7,742	22.1
Turnout			35,026		-
	Labour hold		Swing	−9.3

For 2015, the Class War Party announced Mark Lees,^[8] but he failed to stand.^[7]

General Election 2010: West Bromwich West^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour Co-op	Adrian Bailey	16,263	45.0	-8.7
	Conservative	Andrew Hardie	10,612	29.3	+6.6
	Liberal Democrat	Sadie Smith	4,336	12.0	+1.8
	BNP	Russ Green	3,394	9.4	-0.5
	UKIP	Malcolm Ford	1,566	4.3	+1.8
Majority			5,651	15.6
Turnout			36,171	55.6	+4.0
	Labour hold		Swing	−7.6

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: West Bromwich West^[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour Co-op	Adrian Bailey	18,951	54.3	−6.5
	Conservative	Mimi Harker	8,057	23.1	−2.0
	Liberal Democrat	Martyn Smith	3,583	10.3	+3.5
	BNP	James Lloyd	3,456	9.9	+5.4
	UKIP	Kevin Walker	870	2.5	+0.9
Majority			10,894	31.2
Turnout			34,917	52.3	+4.6
	Labour hold		Swing	−2.3

General Election 2001: West Bromwich West^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour Co-op	Adrian Bailey	19,352	60.8	N/A
	Conservative	Karen Bissell	7,997	25.1	N/A
	Liberal Democrat	Sadie Smith	2,168	6.8	N/A
	BNP	John Salvage	1,428	4.5	N/A
	UKIP	Kevin Walker	499	1.6	N/A
	Socialist Labour	Baghwant Singh	396	1.2	N/A
Majority			11,355	35.7
Turnout			31,840	47.7	-6.7
	Labour gain from Speaker		Swing

West Bromwich West by-election, 2000

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour Co-op	Adrian Bailey	9,460	50.6	N/A
	Conservative	Karen Bissell	6,408	34.3	N/A
	Liberal Democrat	Sadie Smith	1,791	9.6	N/A
	BNP	Nick Griffin	794	4.2	N/A
	UKIP	Jonathan Oakton	246	1.3	N/A
Majority			3,052	16.3
Turnout				27.3
	Labour gain from Speaker		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: West Bromwich West^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Speaker	Betty Boothroyd^1	23,969	65.3	N/A
	Independent Labour	Richard Silvester	8,546	23.3	N/A
	National Democrats	Steven Edwards	4,181	11.4	N/A
Majority			15,423	40.0
Turnout			36,696	54.4
	Speaker gain from Labour		Swing

¹Boothroyd stood as "The Speaker seeking re-election."

General Election 1992: West Bromwich West^[13][14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Betty Boothroyd	22,251	54.8	+4.3
	Conservative	Desmond Swayne	14,421	35.5	−1.6
	Liberal Democrat	Sarah Broadbent	3,925	9.7	−2.7
Majority			7,830	19.3	+6.0
Turnout			40,597	70.4	+3.4
	Labour hold		Swing	+3.0

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: West Bromwich West^[15]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Betty Boothroyd	19,925	50.48
	Conservative	FA Betteridge	14,672	37.17
	Social Democratic	A Collingbourne	4,877	12.35
Majority			5,253	13.31
Turnout				66.97
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1983: West Bromwich West^[16]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Betty Boothroyd	18,896	50.73
	Conservative	D Harman	12,257	32.91
	Social Democratic	A Collingbourne	6,094	16.36
Majority			6,639	17.82
Turnout				63.84
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1979: West Bromwich West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Betty Boothroyd	23,791	60.28
	Conservative	D Harrison	14,323	36.29
	National Front	R Churms	1,351	3.42
Majority			9,468	23.99
Turnout				67.11
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election October 1974: West Bromwich West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Betty Boothroyd	23,336	62.21
	Conservative	N Bridges-Adams	8,537	22.76
	Liberal	DJ Corney	3,619	9.65
	National Front	R Churms	2,022	5.39
Majority			14,799	39.45
Turnout				62.79
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election February 1974: West Bromwich West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Betty Boothroyd	25,112	62.94
	Conservative	PM Smith	11,681	29.28
	National Front	G Bowen	3,107	7.79
Majority			13,431	33.66
Turnout				67.46
	Labour hold		Swing

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in West Midlands

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. She was elevated to the House of Lords as Baroness Boothroyd of Sandwell.

References

1. "Electorate Figures - Boundary Commission for England". 2011 Electorate Figures. Boundary Commission for England. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
3. Unemployment claimants by constituency The Guardian
4. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 2)
5. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
6. "Paul Ratner PPC page". Conservative Party (UK). Retrieved 22 January 2015.
7. "Statement of persons nominated and notice of poll - general election 2015". Retrieved 11 April 2015.
8. https://ianbone.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/mark-lees-class-war-candidate-for-west-bromwich-west/
9. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
10. "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
11. "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
12. "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
13. "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
14. "UK General Election results April 1992". Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Retrieved 2010-12-06.
15. "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
16. "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.

Coordinates: 52°32′N 2°03′W / 52.53°N 2.05°W