Category: Semi-marginal Labour seat

Geography: West Midlands. Part of the Birmingham council area.

Main population centres: Edgbaston, Quinton, Bartley Green, Harborne.

Profile: This is a largely middle-class seat of leafy suburbs in the South-West of Birmingham. It covers four council wards, Bartley Green, Edgbaston, Harbone and Quinton. The first three are safely Tory with Quinton more marginal, as it includes council estates like Woodgate Valley and Welsh House Farm. Parts of Edgbaston itself are also becoming more inner city in character, with more houses of multiple occupany and a higher proportion of ethnic minorites. The seat includes Bartley reservoir, Edgbaston Cricket Ground and the main campus of the University of Birmingham (although not all the students actually live here, they are more likely to be found in Selly Oak).

Politics: Traditionally Edgbaston was a Conservative seat and was held by the Conservatives for most of the twentieth century until falling to Labour in the 1997 landslide. Labour`s majority was reduced to only 6% by 2005 and the seat was a prime target for the Conservatives in 2010, but one they failed to take - it was the most vulnerable Labour-Conservative marginal seat that Labour managed to hold onto. The seat has been represented by a female MP since 1953: Edith Pitt was followed by Dame Jill Knight and now Gisela Stuart.