Northampton South Constituency

The constituency includes the areas of Delapre, St Crispin, St James, Old and New Duston, East and West Hunsbury, Nene Valley, Weston and Castle within the Borough of Northampton. It also includes parts of South Northamptonshire covering the villages of Roade, Denton, Milton Malsor, Collingtree, Quinton, Rothersthorpe, Ashton, Brafield on the Green, Whiston, Kislingbury, Piddington, Hartwell, Litlle Houghton, Great Houghton, Hackleton, Cogenhoe, Harpole and Yardley Hastings.The current constituency includes the southern part of Abington (south of the Wellingborough Road) and part of Ecton Brook. Under the boundary changes to be introduced at the next election the South Northamptonshire part of the constituency together with East & West Hunsbury and Nene Valley become part of a new South Northamptonshire constituency which includes Towcester and Brackley. The new Northampton South constituency will cover all the remaining wards in the Borough not in the north including Spencer and Ecton Brook but not south Abington which moves into Northampton North.

The current MP is Conservative Brian Binley who won the seat from the Labour's (Tony Clarke) in the May 2005. The seat was one of the most marginal in the country and had been unexpectedly won by Tony Clarke in the 1997 Labour landslide. He retained the seat in 2001. In 2005 it was 14th on the Conservatives target list.

Brian Binley is also a Conservative County Councillor for Hackleton Division which is within the Northampton South Constituency - he is the Portfolio Holder for Finance on the now Conservative Controlled County Council. When not being the MP and a County Councillor he has his own marketing business.

See past General Election results courtesy of The Guardian's website.

Lib Dems breakthrough into the South

Whilst Delapre ward in the South had the last Liberal Councillor in Northampton up until the decline of the party in the 1950's the Northampton South constituency has not been fertile territory for the party until 1999. Then in the Borough Council elections the party won its first ward by gaining the then new seat of West Hunsbury. This was followed by the gain of Delapre ward in 2003.

Traditionally up until the forming of the Liberal Democrats in 1988 the SDP had fought the Northampton South seat whilst the Liberals Northampton North.

The party has been struggling to make major progress since coming second in 1983 with 23.4% of the vote - a high point for the Lib/SDP Alliance. The constituency is a typical Labour/Conservative marginal but with the Lib Dems beginning to make headway:

• 1987 - George Hopkins - 18.6%

• 1992 - Graham Mabbutt - 14.9%

• 1997 - Tony Worgan - 11.1%

• 2001 - Andrew Simpson 12.5%

• 2005 - Kevin Barron - 15.3%

The 2005 General Election

The party selected local Lib Dem activist Kevin Barron in the spring of 2005 as its candidate for the General Election. It was Kevin's first campaign as a parliamentary candidate and he concentrated on supporting colleagues standing for council in the constituency as well as tackling national issues with Northampton South getting high profile media coverage as a key marginal seat.

Whilst the result saw the Conservatives gaining the seat from Labour the Lib Dem vote increased by 2.8% and did not get squeezed in this traditional two-way marginal contest.

Northampton South General Election Result - May 2005.