Election 97

Southwark North and Bermondsey


Result 97 gain
from LibDem
Current MP 97 Simon Hughes
Majority 0 ( 0.0%)
Conservative 97 2,835 ( 6.9%)
Labour 97 16,444 (40.3%)
LibDem 97 19,831 (48.6%)
Nationalist 97 0 ( 0.0%)
Other 97 1,685 ( 4.1%)
Elected party 97
Electorate 97 65,598
Turnout 97 40,795 (62.2%)



1992 MP Simon Hughes
Old constituency name Southwark and Bermondsey
Majority 92 7,269 (16.9%)
Conservative 92 5,170 (12.0%)
Labour 92 14,889 (34.5%)
LibDem 92 22,158 (51.4%)
Nationalist 92 0 ( 0.0%)
Other 92 909 ( 2.1%)
Elected party 92 LibDem
Electorate 92 69,011
Turnout 92 43,126 (62.5%)
Southwark North and Bermondsey



Tory change -5.0%
Labour change +5.8%
Lib Dem change -2.8%
Nationalist change +0.0%
Other change +2.0%
Electorate change -4.9%
Turnout Change -0.3%
Robert Waller wrote

One of the poorest of London's inner-city seats, this constituency has had an extraordinary electoral history. It includes such run-down neighbourhoods as the Elephant and Castle and the extinct docklands of Bermondsey and Rotherhithe, yet this is not a Labour seat, but a Lib Dem stronghold that was retained by Simon Hughes in 1992 with an increased majority of 10,000 - their largest anywhere. The Liberals took the seat in a controversial 1983 by-election caused by the resignation of veteran Labour right-winger Bob Mellish. Official Labour candidate Peter Tatchell - now of the gay activist group Outrage - was portrayed as a gay Australian draft-dodger by the right-wing press, and he was opposed by John O'Grady, a local Labour right-winger who stood as Independent Labour. Faced with all this, the traditional working-class electorate flocked to the Lib Dems. Simon Hughes has made the seat a personal fiefdom, and he faces no real threat in 1997.


Super Profiles

0 0.00 9.03 0
0 0.00 11.17 0
0 0.00 11.25 0
80 0.17 14.70 1
7,760 16.12 10.45 154
0 0.00 2.81 0
3,343 6.94 8.01 87
529 1.10 15.25 7
1,656 3.44 7.13 48
34,272 71.19 10.17 700