CARDIFF SOUTH AND PENARTH (UK PARLIAMENT CONSTITUENCY)

'Cardiff South and Penarth' () is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is normally a strong Labour seat although the Conservatives were able to significantly challenge in their 1983 landslide.

Contents

Boundaries

Member of Parliament

Election results

Politics and history of the constituency

References

See also

Boundaries

This constituency comprises the Cardiff electoral divisions of Butetown, Grangetown, Llanrumney, Rumney, Splott and Trowbridge. It also includes the four Penarth electoral divisions of Stanwell, St Augustines, Plymouth and Cornerswell, and the communities of Sully, Lavernock and Llandough which are in the Vale of Glamorgan County Borough.

Member of Parliament

The current Member of Parliament for this seat is Alun Michael of the Labour Party. He was elected following James Callaghan's retirement at the 1987 general election. Callaghan was elected to this seat under its old name of Cardiff South in the 1945 general election, and held it continuously until his retirement 42 years later, under its previous name of Cardiff South East.

★ 1983 – 1987: James Callaghan, Labour

★ 1987 – ''present'': Alun Michael, Labour Co-operative

Election results

Politics and history of the constituency

While Cardiff South and Penarth was once viewed as one of the safest Labour seats in Britain, their majority has been progressively eroded here since at least 1992. The 2005 general election continued this trend, while bringing the minority Liberal Democrat party up to a level with the Conservative Party, long established as the second party in this seat. It remains to be seen what effect the incorporation of the strongly Conservative ward of Sully will have on the voting patterns in this constituency.
One anomaly visible in the 1997 election results is the presence of the "New Labour" candidate, J Foreman. Not affiliated with the mainstream Labour Party, he nevertheless managed to poll more votes than either Plaid Cymru or the Referendum Party, probably due to the similar party names confusing the voters.

References

★ Results: Cardiff South & Penarth

★ News Release - South Glamorgan

★ Aristotle: Cardiff South and Penarth

See also

★ List of Parliamentary constituencies in South Glamorgan