Sheffield Hallam 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 (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...
represented in the
House of Commons of the
UK Parliament since
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
by
Olivia Blake
Olivia Frances Blake (born 10 March 1990) is a British Labour politician. She was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam at the 2019 general election.
Early life
Blake grew up in Otley, a market town north of Leeds, W ...
of the
Labour Party.
The Hallam seat was previously held by
Nick Clegg, the former
Leader of the Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a political party in the United Kingdom. Party members elect the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the head and highest-ranking member of the party. Liberal Democrat members of Parliament also elect a deputy leader of ...
and
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom until he was unseated by Labour in
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a se ...
.
Constituency profile
Sheffield Hallam is the only constituency in South Yorkshire that has not been a Labour stronghold, returning a Labour MP for the first time in 2017. Apart from a brief period between 1916 and 1918, when it was taken by the Liberals, it was a Conservative seat from 1885 until 1997, when the Liberal Democrats won it. This long period of Conservative dominance included all three elections under
Margaret Thatcher's premiership, starkly contrasting with most seats in the county and the neighbouring county of
Derbyshire.
On income-based 2004 statistics, this is the most affluent constituency one place below the top ten seats of the 650, which were spread across the
South East of England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, ...
(including
London), with almost 12% of residents earning over £60,000 a year.
This measure placed Sheffield Hallam above
Windsor and
Twickenham.
Based on 2011–12 income and tax statistics from
HMRC, Sheffield Hallam has the 70th highest median income of the 650 parliamentary constituencies, with those above it almost exclusively in London and the South East, and placing it above
Tunbridge Wells (76th),
The Cotswolds
The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale.
The area is defined by the bedrock of J ...
(92nd),
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge becam ...
(97th),
Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500.
Developed after the Second World War as a new ...
(103rd), and
David Cameron's former
Witney constituency (121st).
The 2001 Census showed Hallam to have the highest number of people classified as professionals of any of the UK constituencies. Furthermore, 60% of working-age residents hold a degree, the 7th highest and exceeding Cambridge.
Before the
1997 general election, the constituency was a safe
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 ...
seat, and was the only Conservative seat in South Yorkshire in the three previous elections to that. From 2005 to 2017, it was represented in the
House of Commons by
Nick Clegg, who was leader of the
Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015 and
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
from 2010 to 2015.
Hallam constituency extends from
Stannington and
Loxley in the north to
Dore in the south and includes small parts of the city centre in the east. It includes the wards of
Crookes
Crookes is a suburb of the City of Sheffield, England, about west of the city centre. It borders Broomhill to the south, Walkley and Crookesmoor to the east and open countryside around the River Rivelin to the north. The population of the ...
,
Dore and Totley
Dore and Totley ward—which includes the districts of Bradway , Dore, Totley, and Whirlow—is one of the 28 electoral wards in City of Sheffield, England. It is currently represented by three Liberal Democrat councillors. It is l ...
,
Ecclesall
Ecclesall Ward—which includes the neighbourhoods of Banner Cross, Bents Green, Carterknowle, Ecclesall, Greystones, Millhouses, and Ringinglow—is one of the 28 electoral wards in City of Sheffield, England. It is located in the southweste ...
,
Fulwood and Stannington.
The majority of Hallam is rural, spreading in the west into the
Peak District
The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moo ...
National Park. It also contains some of the least deprived wards in the country, has low unemployment (1.5% jobseekers claimants in November 2012) and a high rate of owner occupancy, with few occupants who rent their home. Since the
2010 boundary changes, neither of Sheffield's universities have a campus in the constituency but it still includes areas where many students live.
In the 2017 general election, the
Labour Party candidate,
Jared O'Mara
Jared Cain O'Mara (born 15 November 1981) is a British former politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam from 2017 to 2019. Elected as a Labour Party candidate, he left the party in October 2017 after allegations of sexu ...
, won the seat from Clegg.
This was the first time in the seat's history that it had returned a Labour MP.
From 25 October 2017 until 3 July 2018, O'Mara had the whip withdrawn as a Labour MP and sat as an independent. It was later restored but he quit the Labour Party shortly afterwards. He then sat as an
independent MP until leaving parliament. O'Mara announced he would resign as an MP in September 2019, citing mental health issues, which would have triggered a by-election in the constituency. However, he later postponed his resignation until the 2019 general election.
Olivia Blake
Olivia Frances Blake (born 10 March 1990) is a British Labour politician. She was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam at the 2019 general election.
Early life
Blake grew up in Otley, a market town north of Leeds, W ...
won the seat for the Labour party in the 2019 general election.
In her
maiden speech to Parliament,
Olivia Blake
Olivia Frances Blake (born 10 March 1990) is a British Labour politician. She was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam at the 2019 general election.
Early life
Blake grew up in Otley, a market town north of Leeds, W ...
said that the Sheffield Hallam constituency had a "very long history of social justice", as mythology points to a
Yorkshire origin for Robin Hood in
Loxley, thereby lending her support to the idea that
Loxley was the birthplace of Robin Hood.
Boundaries
1885–1918: The Borough of Sheffield wards of Nether and Upper Hallam, and parts of the wards of Ecclesall and St George's.
1918–1950: The County Borough of Sheffield wards of Crookesmoor and Hallam, and part of Broomhill ward.
1950–1955: The County Borough of Sheffield wards of Broomhill, Ecclesall, and Hallam.
1955–1974: The County Borough of Sheffield wards of Broomhill, Crookesmoor, Ecclesall, and Hallam.
1974–1983: The County Borough of Sheffield wards of Broomhill, Dore, Ecclesall, Hallam, and Nether Edge.
1983–1997: The City of Sheffield wards of Broomhill, Dore, Ecclesall, Hallam, and Nether Edge.
1997–2010: The City of Sheffield wards of Broomhill, Dore, Ecclesall, and Hallam.
2010–present: The City of Sheffield wards of Crookes, Dore and Totley, Ecclesall, Fulwood, and Stannington.
Hallam borders
High Peak,
North East Derbyshire
North East Derbyshire is a local government district in Derbyshire, England. It borders the districts of Chesterfield, Bolsover, Amber Valley and Derbyshire Dales in Derbyshire, and Sheffield and Rotherham in South Yorkshire. The popula ...
,
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 Mem ...
,
Sheffield Central,
Sheffield Heeley and
Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough
Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Gill Furniss, a member of the Labour Party.
History
Following its review of parliamentary representation in South Yorkshire ...
.
History
Prior to its creation Hallam was a part of the larger
Sheffield Borough constituency, which was represented by two
Members of Parliament (MPs). In 1885 the
Redistribution of Seats Act, which sought to eliminate constituencies with more than one MP and for the first time allow approximately equal representation of the people, led to the break-up of the constituency into five divisions: each represented by a single MP, as today. Hallam was one of these new divisions. Its first MP, the Conservative
Charles Stuart-Wortley
Charles Beilby Stuart-Wortley, 1st Baron Stuart of Wortley (15 September 1851 – 24 April 1926), was a British Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1916, shortly before he was raised to the peerage. He serve ...
, had previously been an MP in the Sheffield constituency, elected for the first time in 1880.
Hallam was regarded in 2004 as the wealthiest constituency in the north of England
and was held by the
Conservative Party for all but two years from 1885 to 1997. At the
1997 general election Richard Allan of the Liberal Democrats took the seat with an 18.5%
swing
Swing or swinging may refer to:
Apparatus
* Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth
* Pendulum, an object that swings
* Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus
* Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse
* Swing ri ...
, becoming only the second non-Tory ever to win it. He handed the seat to fellow Lib Dem
Nick Clegg in 2005, who held it until his defeat by Labour's
Jared O'Mara
Jared Cain O'Mara (born 15 November 1981) is a British former politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam from 2017 to 2019. Elected as a Labour Party candidate, he left the party in October 2017 after allegations of sexu ...
in the 2017 general election. That year saw the constituency record its highest turnout since 1951, with 77.8% of voters going to the polls.
Constituency polls during the 2010–2015 Parliament
Due in part to the high profile of the constituency's then-MP
Nick Clegg, who served as Deputy Prime Minister during the 2010–15 Parliament, Sheffield Hallam is unusual in having had seven constituency-specific opinion polls conducted between 2010 and 2015. Each of these polls suggested significant changes in the vote share compared to 2010 general election. The first poll, in October 2010, suggested a drop in the Lib Dem lead in the seat to just 2%, from nearly 30% at the general election five months earlier. Five of the six remaining polls, which appeared between May 2014 and May 2015, suggested that Labour was in the lead in the seat by this time, with the Labour lead fluctuating to between 1% and 10%, and one put the Lib Dems in the lead. On average across all seven opinion polls, Labour had a lead over the Lib Dems of 2.5%. The Conservatives came second in one poll, and third in the other six polls. The May 2015 ICM poll scores displayed are those of the constituency voting intention question. The same poll also carried the standard voting intention question, which showed a Labour lead.
Members of Parliament
Elections
Elections in the 2010s
In 2010, Sheffield Hallam was one of a number of constituencies that experienced problems on polling day leading to some people being unable to cast their vote. In this case, voters at the Ranmoor polling station were subjected to long queues and some voters were turned away when polls closed at 10 pm, with Liberal Democrat candidate Nick Clegg apologising to those voters affected. Acting Returning Officer John Mothersole said that staff had been "caught out" by a high turnout, and the
Electoral Commission instigated a review of procedures in Hallam and other constituencies where similar problems had occurred.
Elections in the 2000s
Elections in the 1990s
Elections in the 1980s
Elections in the 1970s
Elections in the 1960s
Elections in the 1950s
Elections in the 1940s
Elections in the 1930s
Elections in the 1920s
Elections in the 1910s
;
1916 by-election
This followed the
resignation
Resignation is the formal act of leaving or quitting one's office or position. A resignation can occur when a person holding a position gained by election or appointment steps down, but leaving a position upon the expiration of a term, or choos ...
of
Charles Stuart-Wortley
Charles Beilby Stuart-Wortley, 1st Baron Stuart of Wortley (15 September 1851 – 24 April 1926), was a British Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1916, shortly before he was raised to the peerage. He serve ...
on 16 December.
Herbert Fisher of the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
was elected unopposed, becoming Hallam's first non-
Unionist MP.
Elections in the 1900s
Elections in the 1890s
Elections in the 1880s
See also
*
List of parliamentary constituencies in South Yorkshire
*
Notes
References
External links
Vote 2001 – Sheffield HallamBBC News
Election 2005 – Sheffield HallamBBC News
The Guardian
*
Political Science ResourcesElection results from 1951 to the present
*
F. W. S. Craig
Frederick Walter Scott Craig (10 December 1929 – 23 March 1989) was a Scottish psephologist and compiler of the standard reference books covering United Kingdom Parliamentary election results. He originally worked in public relations, compilin ...
, ''British Parliamentary Election Results 1918 – 1949''
*
F. W. S. Craig
Frederick Walter Scott Craig (10 December 1929 – 23 March 1989) was a Scottish psephologist and compiler of the standard reference books covering United Kingdom Parliamentary election results. He originally worked in public relations, compilin ...
, ''British Parliamentary Election Results 1950 – 1970''
Sheffield General Election Results 1945 – 2001 Sheffield City Council
UK Constituency Maps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheffield Hallam (Uk Parliament Constituency)
Hallam
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1885