Cardiff Central (UK Parliament constituency)

Cardiff Central (Canol Caerdydd) was a borough constituency 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.

The constituency was abolished as part of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies and under the June 2023 final recommendations of the Boundary Commission for Wales. The constituency's wards were split between Cardiff East and Cardiff South and Penarth.

Boundaries
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.

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 later constituency was 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.

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 was 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 at the time.

Elections in the 2010s
Of the 117 rejected ballots:
 * 81 were either unmarked or it was uncertain who the vote was for.
 * 32 voted for more than one candidate.
 * 4 had writing or a mark by which the voter could be identified.

Of the 80 rejected ballots:
 * 59 were either unmarked or it was uncertain who the vote was for.
 * 19 voted for more than one candidate.
 * 2 had writing or a mark by which the voter could be identified.

Of the 204 rejected ballots:
 * 166 were either unmarked or it was uncertain who the vote was for.
 * 38 voted for more than one candidate.