South Staffordshire is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Sir Gavin Williamson, a Conservative.
Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat will be subject to major boundary changes and will be renamed Kingswinford and South Staffordshire, to be first contested at the next general election.
Part of the constituency will be absorbed into the new seat of Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge, with Sir Gavin Williamson being chosen as its Conservative candidate.
Boundaries
1832–1868: The Hundreds of South Offlow, Seisdon and Cuttleston.
1983–1997: The District of South Staffordshire.
1997–2010: The District of South Staffordshire wards of Bilbrook, Brewood and Coven, Cheslyn Hay, Codsall North, Codsall South, Essington, Featherstone, Great Wyrley Landywood, Great Wyrley Town, Kinver, Lower Penn, Pattingham and Patshull, Perton Central, Perton Dippons, Shareshill, Swindon, Trysull and Seisdon, Wombourne North, Wombourne South East, and Wombourne South West.
2010–present: The District of South Staffordshire wards of Bilbrook, Brewood and Coven, Cheslyn Hay North and Saredon, Cheslyn Hay South, Codsall North, Codsall South, Essington, Featherstone and Shareshill, Great Wyrley Landywood, Great Wyrley Town, Himley and Swindon, Huntington and Hatherton, Kinver, Pattingham and Patshull, Perton Dippons, Perton East, Perton Lakeside, Trysull and Seisdon, Wombourne North and Lower Penn, Wombourne South East, and Wombourne South West.
The constituency is made up of about two-thirds of the South Staffordshire local government district, its southern bulk. It flanks the western edge of the West Midlands, the closest parts being Wolverhampton and Dudley and it does not contain any large towns; the largest town (by electorate) is Wombourne. Its settlements include Brewood, Cheslyn Hay, Codsall, Featherstone, Great Wyrley, Kinver, Perton and Wombourne. Most electoral wards have to date been locally Conservative safe seats with Labour's only area of frequent strength, Cheslyn Hay, a town with historically a greater dependence on coal mining than the others.
Proposed boundary changes
Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat will be subject to major boundary changes, losing northern parts, including Great Wyrley along with adjoining built up areas such as Cheslyn Hay, to the newly created constituency of Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge. To compensate, the Borough of Dudley communities of Kingswinford, Wall Heath and Wordsley will be added from the disappearing seat of Dudley South, thereby forming a cross-county boundary constituency, to be named Kingswinford and South Staffordshire.
History
1832–1868
The ancient county constituency of Staffordshire was divided under the Reform Act 1832 into two two-member constituencies, while other parts of the old constituency were made into or added to borough constituencies. These halves were formally the Northern division of Staffordshire and the Southern division of Staffordshire with less formal variations more common. The Reform Act 1867 abolished the Southern Division with effect from the 1868 general election, replacing it with two new two-seat constituencies: East Staffordshire and West Staffordshire.
Prominent figures
Edward Littleton was involved heavily in Catholic Emancipation, the Truck Act of 1831, the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832 and the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. For two years he was Chief Secretary for Ireland, prominent in the governments led by Melbourne.
Henry Chetwynd-Talbot (later The Earl of Shrewsbury) became an Admiral and whip in the House of Lords in later in life. In most of this early period the constituency elected prominent land-owning industrialists, including, for example, in Walsall, and Wolverhampton. Henry Hodgetts-Foley inherited the majority of Penkridge, now in the Stafford seat, much developed by his heirs.
1983–present
The present South Staffordshire constituency was established in 1983, although in reality this was merely a renaming of the Staffordshire South West constituency formed in 1974 from parts of the former constituencies of Brierley Hill and Cannock. It covered the whole of the South Staffordshire district until 1997, when the area around Penkridge was included in the Stafford constituency.