Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough is a

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

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. ...

of the

UK Parliament 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 supremac ...

Gill Furniss Gillian Furniss (born 14 March 1957) is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough since 2016. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Shadow Minister for Roads since 2022. Early lif ...

, a member of the Labour Party.

History

Following its review of parliamentary representation in

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

the

Boundary Commission for England The boundary commissions in the United Kingdom are non-departmental public bodies responsible for determining the boundaries of constituencies for elections to the House of Commons. There are four boundary commissions: * Boundary Commission for E ...

recommended substantial changes to the constituency boundaries in Sheffield, to add part of the Sheffield Hillsborough to the whole of the Sheffield Brightside constituency (other than a handful of houses in the corner of Walkley). The rest of the Sheffield Hillsborough constituency formed the southern half of the new

Penistone and Stocksbridge Penistone and Stocksbridge is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament represented since 2019 by Miriam Cates, a Conservative. As with all constituencies, adults qualifying to vote in the seat (its electorate) elect one Memb ...

seat. The constituency's representative from 2010 to 2015 was

David Blunkett David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett, (born 6 June 1947) is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2015, and previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough ...

, who also represented the predecessor Sheffield Brightside constituency since 1987. Blunkett was a former

frontbench In many parliaments and other similar assemblies, seating is typically arranged in banks or rows, with each political party or caucus grouped together. The spokespeople for each group will often sit at the front of their group, and are then know ...

senior minister who was a Secretary of State from 1997 until 2005 in the Blair ministry. He served the first four years of government as the

Secretary of State for Education and Employment The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education. The incumbent is a member of the Ca ...

, three years as the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

and six months as

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions The secretary of state for work and pensions, also referred to as the work and pensions secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the business of the Department for Work and P ...

. Blunkett retired from Parliament at the 2015 general election after representing Brightside/Brightside and Hillsborough for 28 years, the longest of any MP for the seat. The constituency representative from 2015 was

Harry Harpham Robert Harry Harpham (21 February 1954 – 4 February 2016) was a British Labour Party politician and coal miner. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough from the May 2015 general election until he died n ...

until he died on 4 February 2016. He was succeeded by his widow,

, who won a by-election on 5 May.

Boundaries

The City of Sheffield wards of Burngreave, Firth Park, Hillsborough, Shiregreen and Brightside, and Southey.

Constituency profile

The last instance of either of the two predecessor seats being held by an MP from a party other than the Labour Party was the period for both before the 1935 general election. Majorities since

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

have been substantial suggesting a

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district (constituency) in a legislative body (e.g. Congress, Parliament, City Council) which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combinat ...

on historic voting preferences. ;In statistics The constituency consists of Census Output Areas of a local government districts with: a working population whose income is close to and fractionally below the national average and that has higher than average reliance on

social housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

. At the end of 2012 the unemployment rate in the constituency was the highest of Sheffield's five constituencies at 7.6% of the population claiming jobseekers allowance, compared to the regional average of 4.7%. The borough contributing to the bulk of the seat has a reasonably high 33% of its population without a car, has 24.3% of the population without qualifications and 25.7% with level 4 qualifications or above. In terms of tenure a lower than average share, 58.3% of homes, are owned outright or on a mortgage by occupants as at the 2011 census across the district.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

:* ''Served as an MP in the 2005–2010 Parliament''

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheffield Brightside And Hillsborough (Uk Parliament Constituency) Parliamentary constituencies in Sheffield Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 2010