South Shields (UK Parliament constituency)

South Shields is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It has been represented by Emma Lewell-Buck of the Labour Party since 2013.

The seat was created by the Reform Act 1832 as a single-member parliamentary borough.

The current constituency covers the area of South Shields in the South Tyneside district of Tyne and Wear.

1832–1918
Under the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832, the contents of the borough were defined as the Respective Townships of South Shields and Westoe.

See map on Vision of Britain website.

1918–1950
The County Borough of South Shields.

Expanded to be coterminous with County Borough.

1950–1951
As prior but with redrawn boundaries.

Expanded southwards, including the communities of Harton, transferred from Houghton-le-Spring.

1951–1983
As prior but with redrawn boundaries.

1983–1997
The Metropolitan Borough of South Tyneside wards of All Saints, Beacon and Bents, Cleadon Park, Harton, Horsley Hill, Rekendyke, Tyne Dock and Simonside, Westoe, West Park, and Whiteleas.

Minor changes to take account of ward boundaries of the newly formed metropolitan borough, including the transfer of Biddick Hall to Jarrow.

1997–2010
The Metropolitan Borough of South Tyneside wards of All Saints, Beacon and Bents, Biddick Hall, Cleadon Park, Harton, Horsley Hill, Rekendyke, Tyne Dock and Simonside, Westoe, West Park, and Whiteleas.

Biddick Hall gained back from Jarrow.

2010–2024
The Metropolitan Borough of South Tyneside wards of Beacon and Bents, Biddick and All Saints, Cleadon Park, Harton, Horsley Hill, Simonside and Rekendyke, Westoe, West Park, Whitburn and Marsden, and Whiteleas.

Boundary changes for the 2010 general election transferred the community of Whitburn into the South Shields constituency from the neighbouring Jarrow seat.

2024–present
The Metropolitan Borough of South Tyneside wards of Beacon and Bents; Biddick and All Saints; Cleadon Park; Cleadon and East Boldon; Harton; Horsley Hill; Simonside and Rekendyke; West Park; Westoe; Whitburn and Marsden; and Whiteleas.

Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 United Kingdom general election, the constituency was expanded to bring the electorate within the permitted range, by adding the South Tyneside ward of Cleadon and East Boldon, transferred from the abolished Jarrow constituency.

Members of Parliament
The seat was held from 2001 to 2013 by David Miliband, who served as Foreign Secretary from 2007 until Labour's general election defeat of 2010. On 26 March 2013 Miliband announced his resignation from Parliament in order to take up a post as the head of the International Rescue Committee in New York City.

With two exceptions (Arthur Blenkinsop and Emma Lewell-Buck) every South Shields MP since 1929 has been a cabinet member at some point in their career. However, Blenkinsop was a junior minister, and Lewell-Buck has been a shadow minister. Two of them, Chuter Ede (Home Secretary) and Miliband (Foreign Secretary), have held one of the Great Offices of State while MP for South Shields.

The Open Spaces Society in 2013 observed that there has been a tradition of South Shields MPs, from Chuter Ede onwards, promoting the cause of public access and common land.

Elections in the 1910s