Birmingham Perry Barr
2010 Results:
Conservative: 8960 (21.31%)
Labour: 21142 (50.28%)
Liberal Democrat: 9234 (21.96%)
UKIP: 1675 (3.98%)
Christian: 507 (1.21%)
Socialist Labour: 527 (1.25%)
Majority: 11908 (28.32%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Labour: 17291 (46.6%)
Liberal Democrat: 9702 (26.1%)
Conservative: 6578 (17.7%)
Other: 3563 (9.6%)
Majority: 7589 (20.4%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 6513 (16.7%)
Labour: 18269 (47%)
Liberal Democrat: 10321 (26.5%)
UKIP: 745 (1.9%)
Other: 3063 (7.9%)
Majority: 7948 (20.4%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 8662 (23.1%)
Labour: 17415 (46.5%)
Liberal Democrat: 8566 (22.9%)
UKIP: 352 (0.9%)
Other: 2422 (6.5%)
Majority: 8753 (23.4%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 9964 (21.7%)
Labour: 28921 (63%)
Liberal Democrat: 4523 (9.9%)
Referendum: 843 (1.8%)
Other: 1636 (3.6%)
Majority: 18957 (41.3%)
Boundary changes:
Profile:
Current MP: Khalid Mahmood(Labour) (more information at They work for you)
William Norton (Conservative) Khalid Mahmood(Labour) (more information at They work for you)Karen Hamilton (Liberal Democrat) Birmingham councillor since 2004.Melvin Ward (UKIP)Deborah Hey-Smith (Christian Party) John Tyrell (Socialist Labour) 2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 100476
Male: 48.7%
Female: 51.3%
Under 18: 27.2%
Over 60: 17.8%
Born outside UK: 23.6%
White: 51.1%
Black: 12.7%
Asian: 31.9%
Mixed: 2.9%
Other: 1.4%
Christian: 51.5%
Hindu: 5.1%
Muslim: 14.8%
Sikh: 10.1%
Full time students: 8.1%
Graduates 16-74: 14%
No Qualifications 16-74: 38.1%
Owner-Occupied: 68%
Social Housing: 20.1% (Council: 9.6%, Housing Ass.: 10.5%)
Privately Rented: 7.8%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 22.8%
Lets hope real change happens and the lib dems win in perry barr! the polls are close and the Lib Dems came second there last time. lets get ride of labour and the conservatives and have a real govermen that puts the people first!!!
I campaigned a bit for Jon Hunt last time, and at one point thought the result was going to be much closer. What I’d forgotten was that Labour’s vote had been depressed at the election before because they had a new candidate, but Mahmood would get his incumbency bounce in 2005.
Also, Jon Hunt is a nice guy but an unprepossessing candidate. Karen Hamilton should do better, though I’ve think Jon Hunt’s wife, Marcia, would be the ideal candidate.
Very little activity here despite the Clegg surge. Most of the city’s LibDem activists are over in Hall Green and Solihull, so even though Hamilton should get the majority down below 3,000, it’s hard to see her winning.
I’ve posted election leaflets on my blog: http://ukelect.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/local-leaflets/
I live in Oscott ward, which finally went Tory again last time. As others have suggested, the fact that Labour councillors Linnecor and Cotton have done such a good job meant that Labour was able to fend the Tories off for a few years.
Anecdote alert: I have no idea what controversy surrounded Mahmood’s selection, but in 05 I did meet one Labour party member who swore he wouldn’t vote for him because of what had gone on.
Re Adrian Bailey’s post ‘I saw hundreds of postal ballots forged in election’
http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/sundaymercury/news/tm_objectid=16287013&method=full&siteid=50002-name_page.html%3Cbr%20/%3E
LAB HOLD
Sorry, I predicted only 10,000 for Khalid Mahmood when in fact he was re-elected as Member of Parliament for Birmingham Perry Barr for the third time with a majority of 11,908.
Khalid has the biggest majority in Birmingham [excluding Sutton Coldfield]
I think the Handsworth area has been in this constituency since 1983? Prior to that it had its own seat from 1885.
I think this seat is actually closer to the Handsworth seat of 1979 than the Perry Barr of that year, some of which is now in Erdington.
Yes Harry you are right.
The then Handsworth ward was added to Perry Barr in 1983 but Handsworth Wood (then Sandwell ward) was added to Ladywood. It was not until 1997 that the whole of Handsworth was included in this seat as Sandwell was also added then. The Handsworth ward was more accurately renamed as Lozells and East Handsworth and Sandwell as Handsworth Wood in 2004.
This seat is roughly two thirds of the 1979 Handsworth (1979 Lab majority 3,209) and two thirds of the 1979 Perry Barr (1979 Lab majority 491). The areas removed were the most Labour parts of each seat – Aston from Handsworth and Kingstanding from Perry Barr. Without a doubt the Conservatives would have been ahead in the area included from the old Perry Barr and not that far behind in the area from Handsworth. Possible this would have been a Tory seat then.
The Conservatives famously were ahead in Perry Barr in 1982 before Miguel’s disasterous defeat a year later.
They must have been well ahead in this version of Perry Barr.
Pete Whiehead is correct as usual.
There is a history which depressed Khalid Mahmood’s vote in 2001. Roy Hattersley was the MP for Sparkbrook until 1997. This was a majority Moslem seat and Roy made no secret of his expectation that a Moslem would replace him. However the redistribution of 1997 meant that 2 wards of Ladywood were place with 2 wards of Small Heath in the new Ladywood. Small Heath was a GMBU rotten borough. The selection in the new Ladywood would have been won by Godsiff, which would have been acutely embarrassing for Labour since Clare Short was a shadow cabinet member. A deal was therefore done whereby Godsiff was given Sparkbrook. In exchange Labour promised that the next vacancy in Birmingham would be given to a Moslem member. The local constituency parties were all suspended to enable this to happen. This provoked an exodus from the Labour party by Moslem members who formed the Peoples Justice Party who held the balance of power on Birmingham Council in 2003.
Labour fulfilled their promise in 2001 when Jeff Rooker stood down at the last moment which enabled Khalid Mahmood to be appointed as the candidate for Perry Barr, without any reference to members. This also led to protests because Perry Barr’s sizable BAME population was African/Caribbean or Sikh, not Moslem. There was therefore one of the largest swings in the country against Labour in Perry Barr in 2001
Khalid Mahmood has subsequently proved himself to be a good competent local MP, who took a prominent role in the aftermath of the race riots in Lozells in 2004.
Meanwhile the unions remain strong in Birmingham Labour politics, and appointed Jack Dromey in Erdington who has no more connection with Birmingham than Roger Godsiff.
It is a great pity that Lynne Jones retired at the last election.
That is all pretty much true I think. I should point out that Roger Godsiff although not originally from Brum had previously stood in Yardley, in 1983 I think, before being elected to Parliament.
Barnaby is correct but he was a GMBU hack from Lewisham in London
Not disputing that. Just pointing out that there was at least a precedent to his standing in Birmingham.
I hadn’t realised the Tories managed to hold this seat in 1966. The seat at that time comprised Handsworth, Lozells and Sandwell wards. They didn’t receive much of a positive swing in 1970 – about 1%. Sydney Chapman won that year, taking over from Edward Boyle.
Refering back to the previous post, I wasn’t awear of the situation that existed regarding Roy Hattersley’s retirement.
I can understand the Labour Party not wanting Clare Short to lose her Ladywood seat, but was there any possibility of them trying to get Jeff Rooker to stand down in 1997 so that Clare Shor t could contest Perry Barr and Roger Godsiff could contest Ladywood?
Also, if it was considered so unaceptable for a Muslim to contest Perry Barr in 2001, wouldn’t it have made more sense for Khalid Mahmood to have contested Erdington which also had a vacancy in 2001. Erdington is more WWC than Perry Barr and race relations there are less of an issue.
Sorry for the very belated response, but the reason is that the Perry Barr CLP was suspended (an issue about improvement grants which I really don’t want to go into), whereas the Erdington CLP wasn’t.
Perry Barr doesn’t seem to have much of a centre to it.
I guess the centre is the Alexander Stadium!?
You are correct that there is no substantial suburban centre in NW Birmingham, although there is one in Handsworth. The northern part of this seat is part of the Great Barr area which spills over into Sandwell and Walsall, local government boundaries making no sense here. The seat also contains bits of WWC Kingstanding plus WWC Witton which is part of Aston.
My original proposals for boundary change in Birmingham involved splitting up Perry Barr ward itself which has no unity at all.