Election 97

Derbyshire South

Current MP Edwina Currie
Conservative 97 18,742
Labour 97 32,709
LibDem 97 5,408
Nationalist 97 0
Other 97 617
Elected party
Derbyshire South

Robert Waller wrote
Old constituency Derbyshire South
Conservative 92 29,825
Labour 92 27,878
LibDem 92 5,235
Nationalist 92 0
Other 92 291
Elected party Conservative

The southern tip of Derbyshire has elected some colourful characters since the war, such as the late Labour deputy leader George Brown and, most recently, Mrs Edwina Currie.

Edwina Currie's tenure here seemed safe as recently as 1987, when she won by over 10,000 votes, but heavy doubts about her political future have been raised more recently. First, her majority was more than halved as Labour increased their share of the vote by 8.8 per cent in 1992. Second, subsequent boundary changes mean that even that lead of 4,658 would have been reduced to around 2,000 if the middle-class Derby suburb of Mickleover had been excluded from the constituency, as it will be next time.

The upshot is that Labour has already done almost all the work necessary to remove Mrs Currie, and all that is now needed is one more fairly short heave.


Super Profiles

3,357 8.39 9.03 93
3,306 8.26 11.17 74
6,569 16.41 11.25 146
10,603 26.49 14.70 180
902 2.25 10.45 22
1,141 2.85 2.81 101
1,124 2.81 8.01 35
10,821 27.04 15.25 177
1,674 4.18 7.13 59
233 0.58 10.17 6