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1997 Result:
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1992 Notional
Result:
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Con
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25,969
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49.3%
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Lab
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21,003
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39.87%
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LibDem
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4,470
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8.49%
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Others
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1,237
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2.35%
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Notional Majority
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4,966
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9.43%
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Description:
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The sitting MP since 1974, Nicholas Budgen, is fighting on although some MPs might have been tempted to find a safer seat or retire. Mr Budgen's predecessor, and the only other MP to have held this seat, was Enoch Powell. It was here in 1968 that Mr Powell made his famous "rivers of blood" speech in which he warned against allowing any increase in the number of coloured immigrants to Britain. Mr Powell refused to stand here in February 1974, having denounced the election as fraudulent. He decamped to Northern Ireland later that year and took South Down for the Ulster Unionists. There is a sharp demarcation between the division's suburban, predominantly bourgeois areas and that part of the city centre covered by St Peter's ward, Labour's only stronghold here. The big Asian and black community in the seat - over 20% at the time of the 1991 census - is concentrated here. The demographics bear out what an area of contrasts this is: the percentage of professional and managerial/technical residents is high at 40% of the electorate but unemployment is also above average. The ratio of owner-occupiers to council house tenants is very close to the national figure: 70% to 20%.
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