Post by John Chanin on Feb 12, 2024 17:15:09 GMT
This is based on the original profile by greenchristian with updated and expanded demographic information.
The city of Coventry dates back to the early Anglo-Saxon period, and was one of the largest settlements in the country in mediaeval times. The most famous events in its 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 Coventry South constituency in its present form was created in 1997 from parts of South East and South West when the city was reduced from four seats to three. In the latest boundary changes, required because the seat had dropped a few hundred voters below the minimum now permitted, one ward has been swapped with Coventry East - adjoining wards in the south-east of the city - which will have minimal political effect. The Conservatives tried hard to get a ward moved from North West instead, which would have shifted it notionally to the Conservatives, but the Boundary Commission took the simplest option.
The constituency can be divided into roughly two parts. Firstly there is the city centre, which contains both the cathedrals, historic Coventry with its old housing, and the University of Coventry. It also contains in St Michael’s ward loads of new student accommodation, and indeed half the ward is occupied by students who are recorded as renting privately. The rest of the city centre is poor, with lots of social housing, and nearly 50% in routine and semi-routine jobs, much of the population being muslim as an extension of the concentration in Foleshill to the north. The ward is safely Labour, as is the newcomer Lower Stoke which covers the area to the east of the city centre, and north of the west coast main line. This is a middling area demographically - not exactly middle class, but not particularly deprived either, with a significant but average for Coventry ethnic minority population split evenly between black and south asian.
The other two-thirds of the seat is middle-class south Coventry. It contains most of the really affluent areas of the city – Cheylesmore, Earlsdon, Finham, and Stivichall. Earlsdon and Wainbody wards are over 50% managerial and with degrees, and with virtually no social housing. Wainbody on the southern edge of the city contains the Victorian mansions along the Kenilworth Road, and Warwick University and Business Park at Gibbet Hill. About a third of Warwick University students live on campus, which spills over the border into Warwick District, and the ward is consequently a third students. Cheylesmore and Westwood are a little down market, although still thoroughly middle-class. The former contains the Jaguar Land Rover plant next to Coventry Airport, largely defunct, and also just over the border in Warwick District. The company funds an innovation centre at the university. Westwood on the western edge of the city has a lot of new private housing, as well as a significant amount of social housing, and older middle-class housing in Westwood Heath, some of which is now occupied by students, spilling over from Canley by the university. As elsewhere in Coventry there are sizeable ethnic minority communities here, particularly a concentration of Sikhs in Finham, which forms the eastern section of Wainbody ward (away from the university). The ward actually has the second largest south asian percentage in the city. Westwood is whiter, and more similar to the other western wards included in Coventry North West.
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, and safe Labour Lower Stoke, it contains the only safe Conservative ward in the city (Wainbody), and three wards that are Labour-Conservative battlegrounds (Cheylesmore, Earlsdon, and Westwood), changing hands frequently.
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, neighbouring Coventry North West had a smaller Labour lead. Labour's vote share here was down by more than the national average, despite the seat being remain-leaning and both the Liberal Democrats and Greens increasing by about the same as their national averages. This might be related to the change of Labour candidate. Outgoing MP Jim Cunningham had never been high profile, but was well-regarded as a constituency MP. The new Labour candidate, Zarah Sultana, who is of Kashmiri descent, attracted some negative media coverage relating to anti-Semitic social media comments she had made in the past. She was also regarded as something of a parachute (although only coming from Birmingham), with the local press making a big thing about there having been no local candidates on the shortlist for this seat.
Census data: Owner-occupied 57% (438/575 in England & Wales), private rented 27% (89th), social rented 16% (254th).
: White 61%(504th), Black 10%(63rd), South Asian 15%(63rd), Mixed 3%(160th), Other 10%(63rd)
: Muslim 10%(110th), Sikh 5%(19th), Hindu 5%(36th)
: Managerial & professional 40% (230th), Routine & Semi-routine 30% (233rd)
: Degree level 35%(194th), Minimal qualifications 23%(457th)
: Students 25% (8th), Over 65: 14% (479th)
Boundaries : The new seat is made up of 80% from Coventry South and 20% from Coventry NE
83% of the old seat is in the new one, with 17% going to Coventry East
The city of Coventry dates back to the early Anglo-Saxon period, and was one of the largest settlements in the country in mediaeval times. The most famous events in its 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 Coventry South constituency in its present form was created in 1997 from parts of South East and South West when the city was reduced from four seats to three. In the latest boundary changes, required because the seat had dropped a few hundred voters below the minimum now permitted, one ward has been swapped with Coventry East - adjoining wards in the south-east of the city - which will have minimal political effect. The Conservatives tried hard to get a ward moved from North West instead, which would have shifted it notionally to the Conservatives, but the Boundary Commission took the simplest option.
The constituency can be divided into roughly two parts. Firstly there is the city centre, which contains both the cathedrals, historic Coventry with its old housing, and the University of Coventry. It also contains in St Michael’s ward loads of new student accommodation, and indeed half the ward is occupied by students who are recorded as renting privately. The rest of the city centre is poor, with lots of social housing, and nearly 50% in routine and semi-routine jobs, much of the population being muslim as an extension of the concentration in Foleshill to the north. The ward is safely Labour, as is the newcomer Lower Stoke which covers the area to the east of the city centre, and north of the west coast main line. This is a middling area demographically - not exactly middle class, but not particularly deprived either, with a significant but average for Coventry ethnic minority population split evenly between black and south asian.
The other two-thirds of the seat is middle-class south Coventry. It contains most of the really affluent areas of the city – Cheylesmore, Earlsdon, Finham, and Stivichall. Earlsdon and Wainbody wards are over 50% managerial and with degrees, and with virtually no social housing. Wainbody on the southern edge of the city contains the Victorian mansions along the Kenilworth Road, and Warwick University and Business Park at Gibbet Hill. About a third of Warwick University students live on campus, which spills over the border into Warwick District, and the ward is consequently a third students. Cheylesmore and Westwood are a little down market, although still thoroughly middle-class. The former contains the Jaguar Land Rover plant next to Coventry Airport, largely defunct, and also just over the border in Warwick District. The company funds an innovation centre at the university. Westwood on the western edge of the city has a lot of new private housing, as well as a significant amount of social housing, and older middle-class housing in Westwood Heath, some of which is now occupied by students, spilling over from Canley by the university. As elsewhere in Coventry there are sizeable ethnic minority communities here, particularly a concentration of Sikhs in Finham, which forms the eastern section of Wainbody ward (away from the university). The ward actually has the second largest south asian percentage in the city. Westwood is whiter, and more similar to the other western wards included in Coventry North West.
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, and safe Labour Lower Stoke, it contains the only safe Conservative ward in the city (Wainbody), and three wards that are Labour-Conservative battlegrounds (Cheylesmore, Earlsdon, and Westwood), changing hands frequently.
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, neighbouring Coventry North West had a smaller Labour lead. Labour's vote share here was down by more than the national average, despite the seat being remain-leaning and both the Liberal Democrats and Greens increasing by about the same as their national averages. This might be related to the change of Labour candidate. Outgoing MP Jim Cunningham had never been high profile, but was well-regarded as a constituency MP. The new Labour candidate, Zarah Sultana, who is of Kashmiri descent, attracted some negative media coverage relating to anti-Semitic social media comments she had made in the past. She was also regarded as something of a parachute (although only coming from Birmingham), with the local press making a big thing about there having been no local candidates on the shortlist for this seat.
Census data: Owner-occupied 57% (438/575 in England & Wales), private rented 27% (89th), social rented 16% (254th).
: White 61%(504th), Black 10%(63rd), South Asian 15%(63rd), Mixed 3%(160th), Other 10%(63rd)
: Muslim 10%(110th), Sikh 5%(19th), Hindu 5%(36th)
: Managerial & professional 40% (230th), Routine & Semi-routine 30% (233rd)
: Degree level 35%(194th), Minimal qualifications 23%(457th)
: Students 25% (8th), Over 65: 14% (479th)
Boundaries : The new seat is made up of 80% from Coventry South and 20% from Coventry NE
83% of the old seat is in the new one, with 17% going to Coventry East
2017 | % | 2019 | % | Notional | % | |
Labour | 25,874 | 55.0 | 19,544 | 43.4 | 20,720 | 44.3 |
Conservative | 17,927 | 38.1 | 19,143 | 42.5 | 19,912 | 42.5 |
Liberal Democrat | 1,343 | 2.9 | 3,398 | 7.5 | 3,152 | 6.7 |
UKIP/Brexit | 1,037 | 2.2 | 1,432 | 3.2 | 1,348 | 2.9 |
Green | 604 | 1.3 | 1,092 | 2.4 | 1,238 | 2.7 |
Other | 224 | 0.5 | 432 | 1.0 | 432 | 0.9 |
| Majority | 7,947 | 16.9 | 401 | 0.9 | 808 | 1.7 |