Post by greenchristian on Apr 21, 2020 0:02:53 GMT
The Coventry South constituency name was first used in 1950 but that constituency was abolished in February 1974, with the constituency split between Coventry South East and Coventry South West. The current constituency was created from parts of those two seats in 1997, when Coventry went from four seats down to three, and the boundaries have been unchanged since then. The constituency consists of the Coventry City Council wards of Binley & Willenhall, Cheylesmore, Earlsdon, St Michael's, Wainbody, and Westwood. It contains most of Coventry's nationally and internationally known landmarks – including the Cathedrals, and the city's two universities (Coventry University and the University of Warwick), with the city centre (and, hence, historic Coventry) being in St Michael's ward.
The city of Coventry dates back to the early Anglo-Saxon period, and has an illustrious history. The most famous events in that history being the legend of Lady Godiva, the shunning of prisoners during the civil war (giving rise to the phrase “sent to Coventry”), and the bombing of the Cathedral during the Blitz – leading to the new Cathedral and its international mission of peace and reconciliation. The city has had a long tradition of reinventing itself industrially, having been through a variety of major industries over the centuries – from ribbons, through watches, to bicycles and cars. It also has a long tradition of political radicalism, dating back at least as far as the Coventry Martyrs in the early 16th Century. This tradition may well have something to do with the selection of Dave Nellist as MP for Coventry South East in 1983. Nellist was famously a member of the Militant Tendency – a Trotskyite entryist group within the Labour Party. He was expelled from the party in 1991, and the seat went from safe Labour to a three-way marginal in 1992, when he stood as an “Independent Labour” candidate. Nellist subsequently became a councillor for St Michael's ward, holding that seat until 2012. Nellist contested the new seat in 1997 before deciding that Coventry North East gave him a better chance.
The seat contains most of the really affluent areas of the city – Cheylesmore, Earlson, Finham, and Stivichall alongside some more deprived areas – Binley, Hillfields, and Willenhall. It also contains large numbers of students. Almost all Coventry University students live here (in St Michael's ward) as do almost all of the third of Warwick students who live on campus (the campus crosses the Warwickshire border) and a minority of the third of Warwick students who live off-campus in Coventry.
Like the rest of Coventry, the city has a large Asian population (around 12% South Asian as of the 2011 census) as well as a substantial Black community (5.9% as of the census). The largest minority religions are Islam (7.4%), Sikhism (4.4%), and Hinduism (3.8%), with a particular concentration of Muslims in St Michael's ward (mostly in the Hillfields area) and Sikhs in Wainbody ward (mostly the Finham area).
At local government level this seat has generally been the most interesting of the three Coventry seats. In addition to what used to be the Labour-Socialist battleground of St Michaels it contains the only safe Conservative ward in the city (Wainbody), three wards that are Labour-Conservative battlegrounds (Cheylesmore, Earlsdon, and Westwood – though Earlsdon looked safely Conservative for many years), and only one ward that has consistently been safe Labour (Binley & Willenhall).
May 2019 Coventry City Council Results (this constituency only)
The city of Coventry dates back to the early Anglo-Saxon period, and has an illustrious history. The most famous events in that history being the legend of Lady Godiva, the shunning of prisoners during the civil war (giving rise to the phrase “sent to Coventry”), and the bombing of the Cathedral during the Blitz – leading to the new Cathedral and its international mission of peace and reconciliation. The city has had a long tradition of reinventing itself industrially, having been through a variety of major industries over the centuries – from ribbons, through watches, to bicycles and cars. It also has a long tradition of political radicalism, dating back at least as far as the Coventry Martyrs in the early 16th Century. This tradition may well have something to do with the selection of Dave Nellist as MP for Coventry South East in 1983. Nellist was famously a member of the Militant Tendency – a Trotskyite entryist group within the Labour Party. He was expelled from the party in 1991, and the seat went from safe Labour to a three-way marginal in 1992, when he stood as an “Independent Labour” candidate. Nellist subsequently became a councillor for St Michael's ward, holding that seat until 2012. Nellist contested the new seat in 1997 before deciding that Coventry North East gave him a better chance.
The seat contains most of the really affluent areas of the city – Cheylesmore, Earlson, Finham, and Stivichall alongside some more deprived areas – Binley, Hillfields, and Willenhall. It also contains large numbers of students. Almost all Coventry University students live here (in St Michael's ward) as do almost all of the third of Warwick students who live on campus (the campus crosses the Warwickshire border) and a minority of the third of Warwick students who live off-campus in Coventry.
Like the rest of Coventry, the city has a large Asian population (around 12% South Asian as of the 2011 census) as well as a substantial Black community (5.9% as of the census). The largest minority religions are Islam (7.4%), Sikhism (4.4%), and Hinduism (3.8%), with a particular concentration of Muslims in St Michael's ward (mostly in the Hillfields area) and Sikhs in Wainbody ward (mostly the Finham area).
At local government level this seat has generally been the most interesting of the three Coventry seats. In addition to what used to be the Labour-Socialist battleground of St Michaels it contains the only safe Conservative ward in the city (Wainbody), three wards that are Labour-Conservative battlegrounds (Cheylesmore, Earlsdon, and Westwood – though Earlsdon looked safely Conservative for many years), and only one ward that has consistently been safe Labour (Binley & Willenhall).
At Westminster level, this seat has traditionally been seen as the Conservatives' best hope of gaining a Coventry seat – having had the smallest Labour majority in the city in every election from 1997 to 2017. That changed in 2019, as despite the Labour majority dropping to just 401 (doubling from about 200 after a recount), neighbouring Coventry North West had a smaller Labour lead. Labour's voteshare here was down by more than the national average, despite the seat being remain-leaning and both the Lib Dems and Greens increasing by about the same as their national averages. This might be related to the change of Labour candidate. Outgong MP Jim Cunningham had never been high profile, but was well-regarded as a constituency MP. The new Labour candidate, Zarah Sultana, attracted some negative media coverage relating to anti-Semitic social media comments she had made in the past (comments about this made it onto at least one spoiled ballot). She was also regarded as something of a parachute, with the local press making a big thing about there having been no local candidates on the shortlist for this seat.
2019 General Election Result
| Party | Votes | Percentage | Change |
| Labour | 19.544 | 43.4% | -11.6% |
| Conservative | 19,143 | 42.5% | +4.4% |
| Liberal Democrat | 3,398 | 7.5% | +4.6% |
| Brexit | 1,432 | 3.2% | +1.0% on UKIP |
| Green | 1,092 | 2.4% | +1.1% |
| Independent | 435 | 1.0% | +0.7% on previous Independent |
| Turnout | 45,044 | 63.5% | -3.0% |
May 2019 Coventry City Council Results (this constituency only)
| Party | Canddates | Vote | Percentage | Change (on 2015) | Change (on 2018) | Seats | Change (on 2015) |
| Labour | 6 | 8,876 | 41.9% | +2.9% | -5.2% | 4 | +1 |
| Conservative | 6 | 7,131 | 33.7% | -1.6% | -6.4% | 2 | -1 |
| Green | 6 | 2,274 | 10.7% | +4.9% | +5.8% | 0 | - |
| UKIP | 3 | 1,544 | 7.3% | -5.6% | +5.5% | 0 | - |
| Liberal Democrat | 3 | 959 | 4.5% | +1.2% | - | 0 | - |
| Socialist Alternative* | 1 | 396 | 1.9% | -1.9% | +0.3% | 0 | - |
*Socialist Alternative is the ballot description of Dave Nellist's political party, used in 2019. But in both 2015 and 2018 they stood as TUSC candidates.
The current councillor count for this constituency is:
Labour: 10
Conservative: 8
(both Cheylesmore and Earlsdon have 2 Conservative and 1 Labour)
