Our Campaigns - UK Parliament - Aldridge-Brownhills Race

New User Account

"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."

UK Parliament - Aldridge-Brownhills

RACE DETAILS

Parents

> United Kingdom > England > West Midlands > West Midlands > Aldridge-Brownhills

Office

Parliament

Honorific

Member of Parliament - Abbr: MP

Type

General Election

Filing Deadline

April 19, 2005 - 12:00pm Central

Polls Open

May 05, 2005 - 01:00am Central

Polls Close

May 05, 2005 - 05:00pm Central

Term Start

May 17, 2005 - 12:00pm

Term End

May 17, 2010 - 11:00am

Contributor

Wishful Thinking

Last Modified

Wishful Thinking May 28, 2005 05:03pm

Data Sources

[Link]

Description

This constituency lies to the north-east of Birmingham. It borders on Staffordshire and is adjacent to Sutton Coldfield, a seat which Labour won when it was created (as Walsall South) in 1974 but has not held since. Some of this has to do with shifting demographics, but a lot is down to the personality of the sitting MP, Tory Richard Shepherd, a Euro-sceptic libertarian, who has a strong personal vote. Aldridge and Brownhills are two distinct towns. Brownhills is the more working class of the two and was once a mining and industrial area. It has now become more suburban in character. Aldridge was always more middle-class and residential. Streetly to the south-east of the constituency, overlooking Sutton Park, is the most exclusive part. The seat has almost entirely a white population (96%) with 77% of people owning their own homes. Aldridge-Brownhills lies within the Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council area. Over all the council is in Conservative hands. Within this constituency, there is just one Labour councillor, who sits for the Brownhills ward. Mr Shepherd held on against the Labour tide in 1997 and increased his majority to 10% in 2001.