Birmingham Edgbaston gain from Conservative Dame Jill Knight (Retiring) 0 ( 0.0%) 18,712 (38.6%) 23,554 (48.6%) 4,691 ( 9.7%) 0 ( 0.0%) 1,508 ( 3.1%) 70,204 48,465 (69.0%) Dame Jill Knight (Retiring) Birmingham Edgbaston 5,056 ( 9.9%) 25,059 (49.3%) 20,003 (39.3%) 5,158 (10.1%) 0 ( 0.0%) 643 ( 1.3%) Conservative 70,873 50,863 (71.8%) -10.7% +9.3% -0.5% +0.0% +1.8% -0.9% -2.7% The Conservatives lost three seats in the city of Birmingham in 1992, reducing them just to two middle-class enclaves, Edgbaston and Hall Green (providing one does not count the affluent and safe Tory suburb of Sutton Coldfield, which was long a separate community but which now elects representatives on Birmingham City Council). Both these two seats must now themselves be regarded as vulnerable, although Edgbaston slightly less so than Hall Green. Neither have ever been held by Labour. Edgbaston itself is probably Birmingham's best known middle-class residential area, famed for its remaining large houses near the Test cricket ground and the university, and the seat also includes more modern private housing in Quinton and Bartley Green wards. Nevertheless, a 5 per cent swing from 1992 would see Edgbaston fall to Labour for the first time. This may be hard to achieve. There is some evidence that the Conservative vote here is unusually hard to crack; the party certainly did unusually well in the wards that make up the Edgbaston seat in the local elections of May 1996. The veteran Tory MP for Edgbaston, Dame Jill Knight, stands down at the forthcoming general election. Her replacement as Conservative candidate is Andrew Marshall. 2,930 7.49 9.03 83 3,158 8.08 11.17 72 2,271 5.81 11.25 52 3,484 8.91 14.70 61 5,339 13.66 10.45 131 5 0.01 2.81 0 3,569 9.13 8.01 114 5,679 14.52 15.25 95 3,872 9.90 7.13 139 7,678 19.64 10.17 193