1950–1955: The County Borough of Derby wards of Alvaston, Arboretum, Castle, Dale, Litchurch, Normanton, Osmaston, and Peartree. 1955–1974: The County Borough of Derby wards of Alvaston, Arboretum, Castle, Dale, Litchurch, Normanton, Osmaston, and Peartree, and the parish of Littleover in the Rural District of Shardlow. 1974–1983: The County Borough of Derby wards of Alvaston, Arboretum, Babington, Chellaston, Litchurch, Littleover, Normanton, Osmaston, and Peartree. 1983–1997: The City of Derby wards of Alvaston, Babington, Blagreaves, Kingsway, Litchurch, Littleover, Normanton, Osmaston, and Sinfin. 1997–2010: The City of Derby wards of Alvaston, Babington, Blagreaves, Kingsway, Litchurch, Littleover, Mickleover, Normanton, Osmaston, and Sinfin. 2010–present: The City of Derby wards of Alvaston, Arboretum, Blagreaves, Boulton, Chellaston, Normanton, and Sinfin. Derby city centre has been in this constituency since 1974; from 1950 it had been in Derby North. The proposals made by the Boundary Commission in 2016 for new constituencies would see the wards Aston, Chaddesden, Spondon and Oakwood move into the seat while the wards Arboretum, Normanton and Blagreaves would move to the seat of Derby North. This would notionally make the seat a Conservative seat. If implemented, this would be the first time the city centre has been in Derby North since 1974.
Members of Parliament
Constituency profile
The constituency takes in Derby city centre including much of its varied income inner-city, a narrow majority of which used to be local council-built however which is offset by conservation areas including beside Derby Cathedral and Derby Catacombs. The remainder of the seat is generally more affluent suburbs, and much of the engineering industry traditionally associated with the city.
History
The constituency was created in 1950, when the former two-seat constituency of Derby was split into two single-member seats. Unlike the Derby North seat, this seat has to date been a Labour Party seat. A notable former MP for the seat was its first incumbent, Philip Noel-Baker of the Labour Party. He served as a Cabinet minister in the post-war Attlee government, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1959 for his campaigning for disarmament. He had previously represented the former two-seat constituency of Derby since a by-election in 1936. The former Cabinet minister Margaret Beckett, who had represented Lincoln from 1974 to 1979, has represented Derby South for the Labour Party since 1983. At that election Beckett won the seat with the smallest majority seen of just 421 over the Conservative Party, since which she has achieved only larger majorities than this. The most recent result shows a marginally smaller percentage majority in 2010, due to a drop in the Liberal Democrat vote, bucking a national trend, suggesting the seat is a relatively safe seat for the Labour Party.
