Croydon South 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 ...

created in 1974 and 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

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 suprem ...

since 2015 by Chris Philp, a

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 ...

Political history

In 1974, the original Croydon South constituency created in 1918 was renamed Croydon Central and the current Croydon South was created from the northwestern part of

East Surrey East Surrey is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Claire Coutinho, a Conservative. The seat covers an affluent area in the English county of Surrey. Since its creation in 1918, East Surrey h ...

, covering Purley and Coulsdon, which had become parts of

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness Greatness is a concept of a state of superiority affecting a person or object in a particular place or area. Greatness can also be attributed to individuals who possess a natural ability to be better than al ...

in 1965. Since its creation, the constituency has been represented by three Conservative MPs. Sir William Clark, who had represented East Surrey since 1970, won the new seat in February 1974, and held it until his retirement in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

. His successor, Sir

Richard Ottaway Sir Richard Geoffrey James Ottaway (born 24 May 1945) is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Croydon South from 1992 to 2015. He was previously MP for Nottingham North from 1983 to 1987. Early ...

, then held the seat until

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

, when he stood down and was succeeded by Chris Philp. Boundary changes have been minor and the 2015 result made the seat the 145th safest of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority. At the 2015 general election, it was one of the Conservatives' safest seats in Greater London.

Constituency profile

Croydon South consists of affluent suburbia, including a significant minority of large houses with gardens on the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): the Surrey Hills ...

escarpment. It has many well-to-do commuters taking advantage of the fast trains to the City and

Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after ...

, plus a significant proportion of retired people. The village-like Selsdon – one of the few places in the seat where transport links are poor – has a place on the political map having spawned the phrase ' Selsdon Man', its

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 ...

and voters first seen as an ideal

bellwether A bellwether is a leader or an indicator of trends.bellwether
" ''Cambridge Dictionary''. Ret ...

for the national swing by 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 ...

. The Purley Way, which runs mainly through Waddon, has become home to large retail estates for out-of-town shopping and leisure. Waddon is the sole Labour ward in the constituency – one of its councillors, Andrew Pelling, the former Conservative MP for Croydon Central, defected to the Labour Party. At the southern end of the constituency, Coulsdon has much in common with the residual county of

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

of which it was a more intrinsically associated part until 1965 as it was excluded from Croydon County Borough on the county borough's creation in 1889.

Boundaries

Members of Parliament

Election results

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

Elections in the 1970s

Notes

References

Sources

External links

Politics Resources
(Election results from 1922 onwards)

(Election results from 1955 onwards) {{DEFAULTSORT:Croydon South (Uk Parliament Constituency) Parliamentary constituencies in London Politics of the London Borough of Croydon Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1974