South East Staffordshire (UK Parliament constituency)

South East Staffordshire
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
County	Staffordshire
1983–1997
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Tamworth, Lichfield
Created from	Lichfield and Tamworth [1]

South East Staffordshire was a parliamentary constituency which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created for the 1983 general election, and abolished for the 1997 general election, when it was replaced by the new Tamworth constituency.

Boundaries

The Borough of Tamworth, and the District of Lichfield wards of Alrewas, Bourne Vale, Fazeley, Little Aston, Mease Valley, Shenstone, Stonnall, Tame, and Whittington.

The main settlement in the constituency was the town of Tamworth; on the seat's abolition for the 1997 general election, it was transferred to the new seat of the same name.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member [2]	Party	Notes
	1983	David Lightbown	Conservative	Died December 1995
	1996 by-election	Brian Jenkins	Labour	Subsequently, MP for Tamworth 1997-2010
1997		constituency abolished: see Tamworth & Lichfield

Elections

Elections in the 1980s

General election 1983: Staffordshire South East ^[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Lightbown	24,556	50.7
	Labour	Christine Crawley	13,658	28.2
	SDP	Michael Lynch	10,220	21.1
Majority			10,898	22.5
Turnout			48,434	76.5
	Conservative win (new seat)

General election 1987: Staffordshire South East ^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Lightbown	25,115	47.2	3.5
	SDP	Elisabeth Gluck	14,230	26.7	5.6
	Labour	David Spilsbury	13,874	26.07	2.1
Majority			10,885	20.45	2.1
Turnout			53,219	80.4	3.9
	Conservative hold		Swing	4.6

Elections in the 1990s

General election 1992: Staffordshire South East ^{[5] [6]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Lightbown	29,180	50.7	3.5
	Labour	Brian Jenkins	21,988	38.2	12.1
	Liberal Democrats	Gilbert Penlington	5,540	9.6	17.1
	SDP	Jill Taylor	895	1.6	New
Majority			7,192	12.5	7.9
Turnout			57,603	82.0	1.6
	Conservative hold		Swing	4.3

By-election 1996: South East Staffordshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Brian Jenkins	26,155	60.1	21.9
	Conservative	Timothy James	12,393	28.5	22.2
	Liberal Democrats	Jennette Davy	2,042	4.7	4.9
	UKIP	Andrew Smith	1,272	2.9	New
	Monster Raving Loony	David Sutch	506	1.2	New
	National Democrats	Sharron Edwards	358	0.8	New
	Liberal	Steven Mountford	332	0.8	New
	Independent Conservative	Leslie Tucker	123	0.3	New
	L!VE TV	News Bunny	85	0.2	New
	Independent	Neville Samuelson	80	0.2	New
	Natural Law	David Lucas	53	0.1	New
	Independent	Frederick Sandy	53	0.1	New
	Independent	Alan Wood	45	0.1	New
Majority			13,762	31.6	N/A
Turnout			43,497	62.0	20.0
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	22.1

Notes and references

1. "'Lichfield and Tamworth', Feb 1974 - May 1983". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
2. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 4)
3. "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
4. "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
5. "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
6. "Politics Resources". Election 1992. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Retrieved 2010-12-06.