Birmingham Ladywood (UK Parliament constituency) explained

Birmingham Ladywood
Parliament:uk
Year:1918
Type:Borough
Elects Howmany:One
Population:126,693 (2011 census)[1]
Electorate:76,585 (2023)[2]
Region:England
Party:Labour

Birmingham Ladywood is a constituency in the city of Birmingham that was created in 1918. The seat has been represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom by Shabana Mahmood of the Labour Party since 2010. Mahmood currently serves as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice under the government of Keir Starmer.

Boundaries

The constituency includes the entirety of Birmingham City Centre (Ladywood ward), as well as Aston, Nechells and Soho which (based on the indices of Multiple Deprivation) are the city wards of highest deprivation. Aston University is within the seat, as is St Andrews, the home of and Birmingham City Football Club.

1918–1950: The County Borough of Birmingham wards of Ladywood and Rotton Park.

1950–1955: The County Borough of Birmingham wards of All Saints', Ladywood, and Rotton Park.

1955–1974: The County Borough of Birmingham wards of Duddeston, Ladywood, and St Paul's.[3]

1974–1983: The County Borough of Birmingham wards of All Saints', Ladywood, Rotton Park, and Soho.

1983–1997: The City of Birmingham wards of Ladywood, Sandwell, and Soho.

1997–2010: The City of Birmingham wards of Aston, Ladywood, Nechells, and Soho.

2010–2024: The City of Birmingham wards of Aston, Ladywood, North Edgbaston, Nechells, Bordesley & Highgate, and Soho & Jewellery Quarter.

2024–present: The City of Birmingham wards of Alum Rock; Balsall Heath West; Bordesley & Highgate; Bordesley Green; Ladywood; Nechells; Newtown; Soho & Jewellery Quarter.[4]

After adjusting the boundaries to take into account the revised ward structure in the City of Birmingham with effect from May 2018,[5] the Aston ward was transferred to Birmingham Perry Barr and the North Edgbaston ward to Birmingham Edgbaston, offset by the gain of the Balsall Heath West ward from Birmingham Hall Green and the Alum Rock ward from Birmingham Hodge Hill.

Constituency profile

Birmingham Ladywood includes Birmingham City Centre along with the areas of Ladywood, Nechells, Bordesley & Highgate and Soho & Jewellery Quarter. The area is one of the most multicultural in Birmingham and the whole of the United Kingdom; in the 1991 census, 55.6% of the constituency population were ethnic minorities, the highest in England at the time.[6] In the recession of 2008–09, it was the first place in the UK where the unemployment claimant count rate exceeded 10%, breaching that level in January 2009. In July 2008, Ladywood had the highest unemployment rate in the whole of the West Midlands (by the international standardised measure, which is usually higher than the claimant count) at just over 18%, compared with neighbouring Birmingham seats Perry Barr (8.1%), Sparkbrook and Small Heath (13.9%), and Yardley (7%).[7] [8] For the year ending September 2014, the unemployment rate was 12.4%,[9] although the employment rate had increased only slightly, from 46.1% to 46.6% (compared with 69.7% for the West Midlands as a whole).[10]

The average house price in Ladywood is just under £155,000, much lower than the national average of just over £288,000.[11]

History

Summary of resultsThe constituency has undergone several boundary changes since its creation in 1918 but has remained a safe Labour seat since the Second World War, with the exception of a by-election in 1969 when Wallace Lawler won the seat for the Liberal Party and the immediately surrounding period when its majority was marginal. The seat was regained for Labour by Doris Fisher at the 1970 general election. The 2015 general election result made the seat the sixth-safest of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority.[12]
Notable representativesThe constituency's first MP was the future Conservative Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who transferred to the Edgbaston seat in 1929. The current MP is Shabana Mahmood, one of the UK's first three female Muslim MPs.[13]

The first campaign for this constituency in 1918 was notable because the Liberal Party candidate was Mrs Margery Corbett Ashby, one of only seventeen women candidates to contest a parliamentary election at the first opportunity. Chamberlain reacted to this intervention by being one of the few male candidates to specifically target women voters; deploying his wife, issuing a special leaflet headed "A word to the Ladies" and holding two meetings in the afternoon.[14]

Members of Parliament

ElectionMemberParty
1918Neville Chamberlain
1929Wilfrid Whiteley
1931Geoffrey Lloyd
1945Victor Yates
1969 by-electionWallace Lawler
1970Doris Fisher
Feb 1974Brian Walden
1977 by-electionJohn Sever
1983Clare Short
2006
2010Shabana Mahmood

Clare Short, elected as a Labour MP from the 1983 general election onwards, resigned the Labour whip on 20 October 2006 and wished it to be known that she would continue to sit in the Commons as an independent MP.

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Birmingham, Ladywood: Usual Resident Population, 2011 . Neighbourhood Statistics . Office for National Statistics . 30 January 2015 . 4 June 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150604064858/http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=6507737&c=&d=27&e=62&g=6430187&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&o=362&m=0&r=1&s=1422104706393&enc=1&dsFamilyId=2473 . live.
  2. Web site: The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume two: Constituency names, designations and composition – West Midlands . Boundary Commission for England . 4 July 2024 . dmy.
  3. Book: . Statutory Instruments 1955 . 1956 . . Part II . London . 2099–2102 . The Parliamentary Constituencies (Birmingham and North Warwickshire) Order 1955. SI 1955/177.
  4. Web site: The Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023 . Schedule 1 Part 8 West Midlands region.
  5. Web site: LGBCE . Birmingham LGBCE . 2024-02-29 . www.lgbce.org.uk.
  6. Web site: Archived copy . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20210112020909/https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/crer/research/publications/monographs/monograph_no.9.pdf . 12 January 2021 . 10 January 2021.
  7. https://web.archive.org/web/20090618212853/http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp2008/rp08-064.pdf Residence-based unemployment rates by parliamentary constituency United Kingdom, June 2008
  8. News: 18 March 2009 . Unemployment in graphics . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20090214100653/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7789784.stm . 14 February 2009 . 24 March 2009 . BBC News . Recession tracker.
  9. Web site: Constituency Profile . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20150131201238/http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/wpca/1929379875/report.aspx . 31 January 2015 . 31 January 2015 . nomis official labour market statistics . Source: Office for National Statistics.
  10. Web site: Economically Active – Time Series: In employment . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20150131201209/http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/wpca/1929379875/subreports/pca_ea_time_series/report.aspx . 31 January 2015 . 31 January 2015 . nomis official labour market statistics . Source: Office for National Statistics.
  11. Web site: Zoopla > Search Property to Buy, Rent, House Prices, Estate Agents . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20191004230325/https://www.zoopla.co.uk/ . 4 October 2019 . 4 October 2019 . Zoopla.
  12. Web site: Labour Members of Parliament 2015 . UK Political.info . 2018-09-29 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180929214847/http://www.ukpolitical.info/labour-mps-elected-2015.htm . live.
  13. News: Adetunji . Jo . Tran . Mark . General election 2010: first female Muslim MPs elected . live . 7 May 2010 . 7 May 2010 . The Guardian . London . https://web.archive.org/web/20190407070956/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/may/07/general-election-female-muslim-mps . 7 April 2019.
  14. http://www.brewinbooks.com/taking_on_the_men Hallam, David J.A. Taking on the Men: the first women parliamentary candidates 1918

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