Wolverhampton South West

Wolverhampton South West
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Wolverhampton South West in West Midlands.
Location of West Midlands within England.
County	West Midlands
Electorate	59,846 (December 2010)
Major settlements	Wolverhampton
Current constituency
Created	1950
Member of parliament	Eleanor Smith (Labour)
Number of members	One
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	West Midlands

Wolverhampton South West is a constituency created in 1950 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Eleanor Smith of the Labour Party.

It was represented by the Conservative Party for 47 years after its formation, with Labour winning it for the first time its 1997 landslide victory. The Conservatives regained the seat in 2010, only for Labour to regain it at the next general election in 2017.

The constituency is perhaps most notable for being held by Enoch Powell from 1950 to 1974, covering his unsuccessful bid for the Conservative Party leadership in 1965 and his controversial Rivers of Blood speech on non-white immigration to Britain in 1968.

This, in the 21st-century, repeatedly marginal seat contains a mix of different areas; St Peter's, Graiseley and Park are relatively deprived inner city wards, with significant ethnic minority populations, mainly of Asian origin and are Labour voting-areas. Penn and Merry Hill are more mixed and suburban with mostly Conservative voters in times of economic prosperity. Tettenhall Regis and Tettenhall Wightwick are affluent suburbs on the western fringe of the West Midlands conurbation and are the strongest Tory wards in the seat.

The seat includes Molineux stadium, home to Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C..

Wolverhampton South West is one of three constituencies covering the city of Wolverhampton, covering the city centre (including the University and Civic Centre) as well as western and south-western parts of the city. The boundaries run south from the city centre towards Penn and north-west towards Tettenhall.