General Election 2005: Solihull

Solihull
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Solihull in West Midlands.
Location of West Midlands within England.
County	West Midlands
Electorate	77,354 (December 2010)
Major settlements	Solihull
Current constituency
Created	1945
Member of parliament	Julian Knight (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	Tamworth
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	West Midlands

Solihull is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Julian Knight, a Conservative.

The Solihull area is home to some of the West Midlands's more affluent residents and includes a high proportion of Birmingham workers and the managerial classes in manufacturing, retail, industry and the public sector. There are smaller villages and undeveloped green belt areas in its peripheral countryside, though the seat is primarily suburban and middle-class, with low levels of deprivation throughout. Workless claimants stood at only 2% of the population in November 2012, below every regional average in the UK. In the study of that date, only three of the 59 West Midlands seats had a lower proportion of registered jobseekers.

Following boundary changes, the northernmost tip of the seat now contains the point in England furthest from the coast in any direction.

The constituency is one of two covering the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull. It covers the town of Solihull itself, as well as Shirley and Olton. It is a largely well-off, residential area, in the south-east of the West Midlands conurbation.

1983–present: The Metropolitan Borough of Solihull wards of Elmdon, Lyndon, Olton, St Alphege, Shirley East, Shirley South, Shirley West, and Silhill.

1974-1983: The County Borough of Solihull.

1945-1974: The Urban District of Solihull.

Conservative candidates won the seat from its outset in 1945 until a loss in 2005, the seat meanwhile seeing boundary changes covered above. In the 2005 general election Solihull was won by the Liberal Democrats, with Lorely Burt beating the incumbent John Taylor by a majority of 279 votes. Burt won the seat again at the 2010 general election, this time by just 175 votes following two recounts. Since 2015 the seat has been represented by Julian Knight, who holds the seat with a majority of 12,902 beating incumbent Lorely Burt.