Norwich South was Labour's safest seat in Norfolk until 2005. Although it was lost to the Conservatives in 1983, it was regained by Labour in 1987 and was the only Labour seat in Norfolk until 1997. In 2005 the Labour majority was cut by over 5000, leaving Norwich North as the safest Labour seat in the county.
At the 2010 election, the seat was considered a three-way marginal between the incumbent Labour party, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. The seat was also targeted by the Green Party. The Liberal Democrats won the seat, with the lowest percentage share of the vote in a constituency in the 2010 election. The loss was considered an embarrassment for the Labour Party as it was the seat of a former Home Secretary.
In the 2015 election, Norwich South was one of the Green Party's target seats, and due to the tiny majority of just 310 votes for the Liberal Democrat Simon Wright over Labour in the previous election, it was a key Labour target. In the event, Wright came fourth with under half his 2010 vote, behind the Greens, Conservatives and Labour, whose left-wing candidate Clive Lewis won the seat with a 10.6% swing from the Liberal Democrats to Labour. The Green Party share of the vote actually fell by 1% compared to 2010, with the Conservative vote slightly increasing.
In the 2017 election, UKIP did not contest the seat but endorsed the Conservatives.[2]Clive Lewis increased Labour's vote share by 22 percentage points to win 31,311 votes (61.0%), the most votes any party has ever won in the constituency. This happened despite the Conservative share of the vote also increasing by 7.1%. The swing was entirely from the Liberal Democrats (who had held the seat from 2010 to 2015) whose vote fell to 5.5%, and the Green Party (who had made the seat a top target in 2015) who dropped to 2.9%, their worst result in Norwich South since 1997.
Although Lewis's share of the vote fell in the 2018 general election, he still held the seat with a comfortable majority of 24.7%, which he increased to 29.3% at the 2024 general election.
Boundaries and boundary changes
1950–1974
The County Borough of Norwich wards of Ber Street, Conesford, Earlham, Eaton, Lakenham, Nelson, St Stephen, and Town Close.[3]
1974–1983
The County Borough of Norwich wards of Bowthorpe, Earlham, Eaton, Lakenham, Nelson, St Stephen, Town Close, and University.[4]
Further to the Second Periodic Review of Westminster Constituencies a redistribution of seats was enacted in 1970. However, in the case of the two Norwich constituencies, this was superseded before the February 1974 general election by the Parliamentary Constituencies (Norwich) Order 1973 which followed on from a revision of the County Borough of Norwich wards in 1971, resulting in a realignment of the boundary with Norwich North.
1983–1997
The City of Norwich wards of Bowthorpe, Eaton, Heigham, Henderson, Lakenham, Mancroft, Nelson, St Stephen, Thorpe Hamlet, Town Close, and University.[5]
Extended northwards, gaining southern parts of Norwich North.
1997–2010
The City of Norwich wards of Bowthorpe, Eaton, Heigham, Henderson, Lakenham, Mancroft, Nelson, St Stephen, Thorpe Hamlet, Town Close, and University; and
The District of South Norfolk wards of Cringleford and Colney, and New Costessey.[6]
The City of Norwich wards of Bowthorpe, Eaton, Lakenham, Mancroft, Nelson, Thorpe Hamlet, Town Close, University, and Wensum; and
The District of South Norfolk ward of New Costessey.[7]
The villages of Cringleford and Colney were returned to South Norfolk. In Norwich, the part of the Crome ward around Morse Road became part of Norwich North, while the area around Mousehold Street in Thorpe Hamlet moved to Norwich South.
Following their review of parliamentary constituencies in Norfolk that concluded in 2007 and came into effect for the 2010 general election, the Boundary Commission for England created a slightly modified Norwich South constituency. The changes were necessary to re-align the constituency boundaries with the new local government ward boundaries introduced in South Norfolk and Norwich in 2003 and 2004 respectively and to take account of Norfolk being awarded an additional, ninth constituency by the Boundary Commission.
Current
Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the contents of the constituency are unchanged, but there were minor changes to the boundaries following modifications to local authority ward boundaries. The area of Costessey around Richmond Road was transferred to Norwich South, and the area of Crome (formerly Thorpe Hamlet) ward around Mousehold Street was transferred back to Norwich North.[8]
There had been an earlier proposal in the Boundary Commission draft recommendations to transfer the whole of the Old Costessey ward over to the Norwich South constituency and move Thorpe Hamlet into Norwich North, but that was scrapped, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. [9] (A proposal in the 2018 previous boundary review to move Cringleford and Old Costessey into Norwich South and Wensum ward into Norwich North was also scrapped).
This constituency underwent boundary changes between the 1979 and 1983 general elections[24] and thus calculation of change in vote share is not meaningful.
^A borough constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
^As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years.
