Enfield Southgate (UK Parliament constituency)

Enfield Southgate
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Enfield Southgate in Greater London.
County	Greater London
Electorate	64,932 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	1950
Member of parliament	David Burrowes (Conservative)
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	London

Enfield Southgate is a constituency created in 1950 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by David Burrowes, a Conservative.

From 1950 to the February 1974 general election, this constituency was known as Southgate.

The seat gained national attention in the 1997 general election when Michael Portillo, Secretary of State for Defence was unexpectedly defeated on a massive swing. Portillo had been widely expected to contest the Conservative leadership and his defeat the media took to epitomise the Labour landslide victory. The victorious candidate, Stephen Twigg, increased his majority at the following election. In the 2005 general election, Twigg's majority was the largest overturned, with a swing of 8.7% to the Conservative candidate David Burrowes.

The 2015 result gave the seat the 60th most marginal majority of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority.

The constituency is in the west of the London Borough of Enfield and generally more affluent than other parts of the borough. It is more cosmopolitan than many other Conservative London suburban constituencies including sizeable Jewish, Muslim and Cypriot communities. In recent years the south-eastern wards of the constituency including Bowes and Palmers Green tend to return Labour local councillors, but in the remainder of the wards overall Southgate has tended to give majorities to the Conservatives and elects Conservative local councillors. To the north the seat becomes semi-rural as it takes in Trent Park and the former campus of Middlesex University, and the Cockfosters terminus of the Piccadilly line. It stretches into the wealthy Hadley Wood area. Some areas (smaller than local government wards) in the south of the constituency have middle rankings of deprivation when placed in a complete list of wards (such as the 2000 Index of Multiple Deprivation), however all other output areas lack any significant deprivation.