Bristol East
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Bristol East in Avon for the 2010 general election
Location of Avon within England
County	City of Bristol
Population	95,368 (2011 census)[1]
Electorate	70,366 (2018)[2]
Current constituency
Created	1983
Member of Parliament	Kerry McCarthy (Labour)
Seats	One
Created from	Bristol South East Bristol South Bristol North East[3]
1885–1950
Seats	One
Type of constituency	Borough constituency
Created from	Bristol
Replaced by	Bristol South East, Bristol Central and Bristol South

Bristol East is a constituency^{[n 1]} recreated in 1983 covering the eastern part of the City of Bristol, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Kerry McCarthy of the Labour Party.^{[n 2]}

Constituency profile

Bristol East covers Fishponds, St Anne's and Brislington.

History

First creation

The seat was first created in 1885^{[n 3]}. Boundaries were slightly altered in 1918 and Bristol East was abolished in a comprehensive review of the local seats for the 1950 general election.

Political history

The most powerful representative of Bristol East in Parliament and H.M. Government was Sir Stafford Cripps, MP (Lab) 1931–1950, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1947 to 1950. The seat shifted from Liberal Party representation through to the Labour Party with the 1918-1923 period seeing a more centrist Liberal splinter group candidate elected.

Second creation

The seat was recreated in 1983 on much larger boundaries than before 1950, reflecting the lower occupation levels of the city centre and allocation of new seats elsewhere to reflect population expansion mainly in former rural and lightly populated suburban areas.

Political history

The 1983 election, the first in the recreated East seat, was a landslide victory for Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives following retention of the Falkland Islands in the Falklands War. Bristol East returned a Conservative MP, as Jonathan Sayeed defeated Tony Benn, the outgoing MP for Bristol South East and the leader of a large faction on the left-wing of the Labour Party. In 1992 Labour's Jean Corston gained the seat from Sayeed, which has been retained by Labour candidates at each subsequent general election, the Conservatives coming second, except in 2005, when the Liberal Democrats did so.^{[n 4]} The 2015 result gave the seat the 42nd-smallest majority of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority;^[4] however, in 2017, incumbent MP Kerry McCarthy more than tripled her majority, winning the largest share of the vote in the seat's history and by the biggest margin since 1997.

Turnout

Turnout has ranged between 80.3% in 1992 to 57.4% in 2001.

Other parties

Five parties' candidates achieved more than the deposit-retaining threshold of 5% of the vote in 2015. Liberal Democrat candidate Philip James won the largest third-party share of the vote to date, in the 2005 election — 25.2% of the vote.

Boundaries

Map of present boundaries

Context of the 1931 landslide result. The seat was one of 16 won by Labour outside of Glamorgan, the London Docklands, Manchester and the North Midlands coalfield (including some in Sheffield) won by a Labour MP. Stafford Cripps was Solicitor-General and later more prominent government figure, after World War II serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer for some years. This excludes 13 National Labour MPs elected out of their 20 candidates.

1885–1918: The Municipal Borough of Bristol ward of South, part of North ward, and the local government district of St George.

1918–1950: The County Borough of Bristol wards of St George East and St George West, and parts of Easton, and Somerset wards.

1983–1997: The City of Bristol wards of Brislington East, Brislington West, Easton, Eastville, Hengrove, Lawrence Hill, and Stockwood.

1997–2010: The City of Bristol wards of Brislington East, Brislington West, Easton, Eastville, Lawrence Hill, St George East, St George West, and Stockwood.

2010–present: The City of Bristol wards of Brislington East, Brislington West, Eastville, Frome Vale, Hillfields, St George East, St George West, and Stockwood.

The constituency covers the eastern part of the city of Bristol, from neighbourhoods of the City Centre to outer neighbourhoods (excluding surrounding settlements in local government administratively).

Proposed

Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, enacted by the Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023, from the next general election, due by January 2025, the constituency will be composed of the following (as they existed on 1 December 2020):

• The City of Bristol wards of: Brislington East; Brislington West; Easton; Knowle; Lawrence Hill; St. George Central; St. George Troopers Hill; St. George West; Stockwood.^[5]

The seat will be subject to major boundary changes which involves the gain of areas including Easton and Lawrence Hill from Bristol West and Knowle from Bristol South.^[6] These gains will be offset by the losses of Eastville, Frome Vale and Hillfields which will move into the re-established Bristol North East constituency.^[7]

Members of Parliament

MPs 1885–1950

MPs 1983–present

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

Elections in the 2010s