Cardiff Central
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Cardiff Central in Wales
Preserved county	South Glamorgan
Population	88,097 (2011 census)[1]
Electorate	64,225 (December 2010)[2]
1983–2024
Seats	One
Created from	Cardiff North and Cardiff South East[3]
Replaced by	Cardiff East,Cardiff South and Penarth
1918–1950
Seats	One
Type of constituency	Borough constituency
Created from	Cardiff
Replaced by	Cardiff North and Cardiff West
Senedd	Cardiff Central, South Wales Central

Cardiff Central (Welsh: Canol Caerdydd) was a borough constituency^{[n 1]} in the city of Cardiff. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system. The seat was last held by Jo Stevens of the Labour Party. She was appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on 6 April 2020.

As part of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies and under the June 2023 final recommendations of the Boundary Commission for Wales for the 2024 United Kingdom general election. Its wards were split between Cardiff East and Cardiff South and Penarth.^[4]

Boundaries

Map of boundaries 2010-2024

1918–1950: The County Borough of Cardiff wards of Canton, Cathays, Central, and Riverside.

1983–2010: The City of Cardiff wards of Adamsdown, Cathays, Cyncoed, Pentwyn, Plasnewydd, and Roath.

2010–2024: The Cardiff electoral divisions of Adamsdown, Cathays, Cyncoed, Pentwyn, Penylan, and Plasnewydd.

As its name suggests, Cardiff Central covered the central area of the City of Cardiff. It extended from the area around the Millennium Stadium in the south to Llanishen Golf Course in the north, taking in the City Centre and the University.^[5]

History

This was a Conservative-held three-way marginal constituency throughout the 1980s but since 1997 Labour and the Liberal Democrats have pushed the Conservative candidate into third place. The Liberal Democrats won the equivalent Welsh Assembly seat in 1999 and 2003 and also dominate the wards which make up the seat in elections to Cardiff Council.

The constituency is socially diverse, with both very affluent and very deprived areas. It has a large student population which seems to have helped Labour to win in 1992 and 1997 but thereafter increasingly switched to the Liberal Democrats due to opposition to government plans for reforming student support. This switched yet again in the 2015 general election where students were disillusioned by the broken promises the Liberal Democrats made regarding tuition fees. This was despite the fact that these student loan promises did not apply to Wales, which has a different funding system and MP Jenny Willott had also voted against the English changes in Parliament.^[5][6]

The seat was unchanged in the Fifth Periodical Report of the Parliamentary Boundary Commission for Wales, which took effect at the 2010 general election.

Since the seat's re-creation in 1983, it has been held successively by each of the three main political parties; the Liberal Democrats gained it at the 2005 election after 13 years of Labour representation. The constituency has transformed dramatically from being a Conservative seat for some years, to a Labour–Lib Dem marginal to the safest Labour seat in Wales today.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1918–1950

MPs since 1983

Elections

Elections 1918–1945

Elections in the 1910s

• coupon issued but withdrawn.

Elections in the 1920s