Edinburgh South (UK Parliament constituency)

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Current constituency
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Edinburgh South is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, first used in the general election of 1885. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Prior to the 2005 general election the constituency had the same boundaries as the Scottish Parliament constituency with the same name. See Edinburgh South (Scottish Parliament constituency).

Boundaries

When created in 1885, the Westminster constituency was partly a replacement for the Edinburgh constituency.

In 1918 the constituency consisted of the "Merchiston, Morningside, and Newington Municipal Wards of Edinburgh."

In 2005, prior to the general election, Edinburgh South was one of six covering the City of Edinburgh council area. Five were entirely within the city council area. One, Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, straddled the boundary with the East Lothian council area, to take in Musselburgh.

For the 2005 election, the constituency was enlarged to enclude areas from the former Edinburgh Pentlands constituency, and became one of five constituencies covering the city area, all entirely within that area.

The constituency covers a southern portion of the city area, and is predominantly suburban. In terms of wards used in elections to the City of Edinburgh Council 1999 to 2007, it includes the wards of Alnwickhill, Fairmilehead, Gilmerton, Kaimes, Marchmont, Merchiston, Moredun, Newington, North Morningside and the Grange, Sciennes, and South Morningside. These wards are due to be replaced with new wards in 2007, as a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004.

Next election

The constituency is recognised as a top target seat for the Liberal Democrats against the Labour Party. The Liberal Democrats' candidate was just 405 votes behind the successful Labour candidate, MP Nigel Griffiths, in the last general election.

Nigel Griffiths is expected to stand again as the Labour candidate in the next general election. The Liberal Democrats have selected former City of Edinburgh councillor Fred Mackintosh as their candidate. The Scottish Conservatives have selected vet Neil Hudson as their candidate. The SNP have selected financial consultant Sandy Howat as their candidate.

On 23 March 2008 former Labour Home Secretary Charles Clarke included Edinburgh South in his Doomsday Memo [1] of 35 constituencies which Labour could loose to other parties if fewer than 7,500 voters switched sides. He predicted that Edinburgh South would be lost to the Liberal Democrats by a swing of under 0.5%.

A Politics Home poll of a group of 19 Scottish marginal constituencies carried out between 22nd July and 4th August 2008 and published 20 September 2008, predicted that Edinburgh South would have then been a Conservative gain .

Members of Parliament

Elected		Member	Party
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1885	George Harrison	Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1886	Hugh Childers	Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1892	Herbert Paul	Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1895	Robert Cox	Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1899	Arthur Dewar	Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1900	Sir Andrew Agnew, 9th Baronet	Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1906	Arthur Dewar	Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1910	Charles Henry Lyell	Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1917	James Edward Parrott	Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Unionist Party (Scotland)/meta/color" |	1918	Charles David Murray	Unionist
style="background-color: Template:Unionist Party (Scotland)/meta/color" |	1922	Samuel Chapman	Unionist
style="background-color: Template:Unionist Party (Scotland)/meta/color" |	1945	William Darling	Unionist
style="background-color: Template:Unionist Party (Scotland)/meta/color" |	1957	Michael Clark Hutchison	Unionist
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1965		Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1979	Michael Ancram	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1987	Nigel Griffiths	Labour

Election results

General Election 2005: Edinburgh South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Nigel Griffiths	14,188	33.2%	-9.0
	Liberal Democrats	Marilyne MacLaren	13,783	32.3%	+4.9
	Conservative	Gavin Brown	10,291	24.1%	+7.5
	SNP	Graham Sutherland	2,635	6.2%	-3.7
	Scottish Green	Steve Burgess	1,387	3.2%	N/A
	Scottish Socialist	Morag Robertson	414	1.0%	-1.5
Majority			405	0.9%	-13.9
Turnout			42,693	70.0	+12.3
	Labour hold		Swing	-6.5

General Election 2001: Edinburgh South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Nigel Griffiths	15,671	42.2%	-4.7
	Liberal Democrats	Marilyne MacLaren	10,172	27.4%	+9.7
	Conservative	Gordon Buchan	6,172	16.6%	-4.7
	SNP	Heather Williams	3,683	9.9%	-3.0
	Scottish Socialist	Colin Fox	933	2.5%	N/A
	Legalise Cannabis	Margaret Hendry	535	1.4%	N/A
Majority			5,499	14.8%	-10.7
Turnout			37,166	57.7%	-14.1
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1997: Edinburgh South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Nigel Griffiths	20,993	46.8%
	Conservative	Elizabeth Smith	9,541	21.3%
	Liberal Democrats	Mike Pringle	7,911	17.6%
	SNP	John Hargreaves	5,791	12.9%
	Referendum	Ian McLean	504	1.1%
	Natural Law	Bradley Dunn	98	0.2%
Majority			11,452	25.5%
Turnout				71.8
	Labour hold		Swing	+8.1

General Election 1992: Edinburgh South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Nigel Griffiths	18,485
	Conservative	Struan Stevenson	14,309
	Liberal Democrats	B. McCreadie	5,961
	SNP	R. Knox	5,727
	Natural Law	G. Manclark	108
Majority			4,176
Turnout				72.67
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1935: Edinburgh South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Samuel Chapman	27,254
	Labour	Mrs B. Woodburn	5,365

General Election 1931: Edinburgh South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Samuel Chapman	unopposed

General Election 1918: Edinburgh South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Maj Charles David Murray CMG KC	14,854
	Liberal	D. Caird	4,955

General Election 1906: Edinburgh South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Arthur Dewar KC	8,945	59.9
	Conservative	William C. Smith KC	5,985	40.1

By-election 1899: Edinburgh South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Arthur Dewar KC	5,820
	Conservative	Maj.-Gen. A. G. Wauchope	4,989

General Election 1895: Edinburgh South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Unionist	Robert Cox	4,902
	Liberal	Herbert Woodfield Paul	4,795
Majority			97

General Election 1892: Edinburgh South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Herbert Woodfield Paul	4,682
	Liberal Unionist	L. McIver	4,251
Majority			431

General Election 1886: Edinburgh South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Hugh Childers	3,778
	Liberal Unionist	Robert Purvis	2,191
Majority			1,587

At a by-election on 9 February 1886, Mr Childers having accepted office, he was returned unopposed.

By-election 29 Jan 1886: Edinburgh South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Hugh Childers	4,029
	Conservative	Hon Walter George Hepburne-Scott	1,730

General Election 1885: Edinburgh South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir George Harrison	4,273
	Liberal	Thomas Raleigh	2,874
Majority			1,399

Notes and references

See also

• Politics of Edinburgh