Bury South is a

borough constituency In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons. Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called "constituenc ...

represented in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...

. At the 2019 General Election it was the 10th most marginal seat in the country, with a majority of 402 for the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

candidate

Christian Wakeford Christian Wakeford (born 9 November 1984) is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bury South since the 2019 general election. Elected as a Conservative, he crossed the floor to Labour in 2022. Early life and career W ...

. Wakeford defected to the Labour Party on 19 January 2022.

Constituency profile

The seat covers Prestwich, Whitefield and Radcliffe, towns that were absorbed into the

Metropolitan Borough of Bury The Metropolitan Borough of Bury is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in North West England, just north of Manchester, to the east of Bolton and west of Rochdale. The borough is centred around the town of Bury but also includes othe ...

in 1974. The western border contains much of Bury's green belt land including Philips Park in Whitefield,

Prestwich Clough Prestwich Clough (referred to locally as "The Clough") is a 24.12 acre Site of Biological Importance situated in Prestwich and is bound by Church Lane to the north, Bury New Road to the east, St. Ann's Road to the south and Buckley Lane to the we ...

and

Drinkwater Park Drinkwater Park is situated in the Irwell Valley on the western border of Prestwich, near Manchester, bounded by the River Irwell to the west, Agecroft Road and Rainsough Brow (A6044) to the south, Butterstile Lane and Carr Clough estate to the ea ...

, making up 500 acres of green space. Prestwich and Whitefield are residential areas with one of the largest Jewish communities outside London. Radcliffe is a former mill town which declined after the loss of industry, with its only secondary school shut down; it is attempting regeneration as a commuter suburb and features a large park-and-ride Metrolink station. North Radcliffe includes Ainsworth, a rural area, along with Simister to the east of Prestwich which still has some farmland, now under threat from development. Overall this is an economically diverse area, as there are pockets of social housing in each town, while houses in areas such as Ringley Road in Whitefield, and Sheepfoot Lane in Prestwich, facing

Heaton Park Heaton Park is a public park in Manchester, England, covering an area of over . The park includes the grounds of a Grade I listed, neoclassical 18th century country house, Heaton Hall. The hall, remodelled by James Wyatt in 1772, is now only ...

, can sell for over £1 million, with mostly owner-occupied semi-detached housing in between. The proportion of graduates and those employed in managerial/professional occupations is slightly above the national average. At local elections, Prestwich mostly returns Labour and

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties See also *Liberal democracy *Lib ...

councillors, with some

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

representation in Sedgley. Whitefield is a mix of safe Conservative and safe Labour, and

Unsworth Unsworth is a village and residential area of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, in Greater Manchester, England. The population of Unsworth Ward, as of the 2011 census is 9,492. The village sits approximately north of the city of Manchester and ...

marginally Labour. Radcliffe was generally Labour with the exception of Radcliffe North. In 2019, the Conservatives gained their second Radcliffe North seat, and Labour lost both Radcliffe East and West wards to an independent local party, Radcliffe First.

Boundaries

1983–2010: The Metropolitan Borough of Bury wards of Besses, Holyrood, Pilkington Park, Radcliffe Central, Radcliffe North, Radcliffe South, St Mary's, and Sedgley. 2010–present: The Metropolitan Borough of Bury wards of Besses, Holyrood, Pilkington Park, Radcliffe East, Radcliffe North, Radcliffe West, St Mary's, Sedgley, and Unsworth. The constituency was created in 1983 from parts of the former seats of Middleton and Prestwich & Bury and Radcliffe, both of which were Labour-Conservative marginals, held by Labour on slim majorities at the 1979 election. It covers the suburban towns of Radcliffe, Whitefield and

Prestwich Prestwich ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England, north of Manchester city centre, north of Salford and south of Bury. Historically part of Lancashire, Prestwich was the seat of the ancient pari ...

. The constituency does not contain any area of the town of Bury itself (which is in

Bury North Bury North is a borough constituency in Greater Manchester, created in 1983 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. With a Conservative majority of 105 votes, it is the most marginal constituency for a sitting MP in the U ...

), apart from Unsworth, but only towns in the south of the

. The seat was contested by future cabinet minister

Hazel Blears Hazel Anne Blears (born 14 May 1956) is a former British Labour Party politician, who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Salford and Eccles, previously Salford, from 1997 to 2015. One of 101 female Labour MPs elected at the 1997 g ...

in 1992, narrowly losing and would later be elected in her hometown in nearby

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

the following election until retiring in 2015. The 2018 Boundary Commission proposals would have seen Bury South boundaries changed, once again becoming Middleton and Prestwich, taking Middleton from the existing

Heywood and Middleton Heywood and Middleton is a constituency in Greater Manchester represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Chris Clarkson of the Conservative Party. Constituency profile The constituency covers the west half of the ...

constituency and losing Radcliffe to a new Farnworth and Radcliffe constituency, while Unsworth becomes part of a newly created Bury constituency. These proposals have since been scrapped.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

References

External links

nomis Constituency Profile for Bury South
— presenting data from the ONS annual population survey and other official statistics. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bury South (Uk Parliament Constituency) Parliamentary constituencies in Greater Manchester Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1983 Politics of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury