Southampton Test (UK Parliament constituency)

Southampton, Test
Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Southampton, Test in Hampshire.
Location of Hampshire within England.
County	Hampshire
Electorate	71,263 (December 2010)
Major settlements	Southampton
Current constituency
Created	1950 (1950)
Member of Parliament	Alan Whitehead (Labour)
Number of members	One
Created from	Southampton
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	South East England

Southampton, Test is a borough constituency of 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.

History

The constituency was created for the 1950 general election, when the previous two-member Southampton constituency was abolished.

Constituency Profile

The seat covers the western part of the City of Southampton, in southern England and is named after the River Test, one of the city's two rivers. It covers the leafy northern suburbs and the western port areas as well as the council housing estates of the western fringes. It is seen as the marginally more affluent of the two constituencies in the city, and has had more Tory traditions than its neighbour Southampton Itchen — named after the other major river.

Labour performed better here than in Southampton Itchen in the 2010 general election and did well to hold on to the seat which is now a Labour marginal and one of only a very few Labour seats left in Southern England.

Boundaries

Southampton Test covers the city wards of (with their associated neighbourhoods):

• Bevois (Bevois Valley, Northam, Mount Pleasant, part of St. Mary's)
• Coxford (Lordshill, Lordswood, Aldermoor)
• Freemantle (Freemantle and part of Shirley)
• Millbrook (Millbrook, Regents Park)
• Portswood (Portswood, Highfield (including the University), St Denys)
• Redbridge (Redbridge, Maybush)
• Shirley (part of Shirley, Upper Shirley, Southampton Common)

The constituency is bounded to the east by Southampton Itchen (Labour), to the north by Romsey and Southampton North (Conservative) and to the west by New Forest East (Conservative).

Members of Parliament

The seat has been represented since 1997 by Alan Whitehead of the Labour Party.

Election		Member	Party
	1950	Horace King	Labour
	1955	John Howard	Conservative
	1964	John Fletcher-Cooke	Conservative
	1966	Bob Mitchell	Labour
	1970	James Hill	Conservative
	Oct 1974	Bryan Gould	Labour
	1979	James Hill	Conservative
	1997	Alan Whitehead	Labour

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2010: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alan Whitehead	17,001	38.5	-5.7
	Conservative	Jeremy Moulton	14,588	33.0	+8.0
	Liberal Democrat	Dave Callaghan	9,865	22.3	-1.8
	UKIP	Pearline Hingston	1,726	3.9	+0.9
	Green	Chris Bluemel	881	2.0	-1.6
Majority			2,413	5.5
Turnout			44,187	61.4	+5.4
	Labour hold		Swing	−6.9

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alan Whitehead	17,845	42.7	−9.8
	Conservative	Stephen MacLoughlin	10,827	25.9	+0.4
	Liberal Democrat	Steve Sollitt	10,368	24.8	+6.7
	Green	John Spottiswoode	1,482	3.5	N/A
	UKIP	Peter Day	1,261	3.0	+1.1
Majority			7,018	16.8
Turnout			41,783	53.7	−2.6
	Labour hold		Swing	−5.1

General Election 2001: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alan Whitehead	21,824	52.5	-1.7
	Conservative	Richard Gueterbock	10,617	25.5	-2.5
	Liberal Democrat	John Shaw	7,522	18.1	+4.4
	UKIP	Garry Rankin-Moore	792	1.9	+1.5
	Socialist Alliance	Mark Abel	442	1.1	N/A
	Socialist Labour	Paramjit Bahia	378	0.9	N/A
Majority			11,207	27.0
Turnout			41,575	56.3	-15.4
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alan Whitehead	28,396	54.1
	Conservative	James Hill	14,712	28.1
	Liberal Democrat	Alan Dowden	7,171	13.7
	Referendum Party	P Day	1,397	2.7
	Legalise Cannabis	H Marks	388	0.7
	UKIP	AM McCabe	219	0.4	N/A
	Independent	P Taylor	81	0.2	N/A
	Natural Law	J Sinel	77	0.1	N/A
Majority			13,684
Turnout				71.9
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1992: Southampton Test
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Hill	24,504	43.4	−2.2
	Labour	Alan Whitehead	23,919	42.4	+9.1
	Liberal Democrat	Diana Maddock	7,391	13.1	−8.1
	Green	JM Michaelis	535	0.9	+0.9
	Natural Law	D Plummer	101	0.2	+0.2
Majority			585	1.0	−11.3
Turnout			56,450	77.4	+1.0
	Conservative hold		Swing	−5.6

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Hampshire