Sheffield Hallam is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Olivia Blake of the Labour Party.
Constituency profile
Sheffield Hallam is a constituency in South Yorkshire in England. It covers the western suburbs of the city of Sheffield, including Middlewood, Loxley, Stannington, Crookes, Crosspool, Ranmoor, Fulwood, Ecclesall, Whirlow, Dore and Totley. The constituency is named after Hallamshire, the historic name for the area of Yorkshire that today includes Sheffield.
Sheffield is traditionally an industrial city that grew rapidly during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with steelmaking and coal mining being the predominant industries. Much of the city was redeveloped after World War II; the city's steel industry made it a target for the Luftwaffe in the Sheffield Blitz. Sheffield Hallam is one of the country's most affluent constituencies with very low levels of deprivation. Suburbs like Ranmoor, Whirlow and Dore contain many large detached and semi-detached properties, many of which were built for the city's wealthy industrialists."A History Of Sheffield", David Hey, Carnegie Publishing, , Gives historical details. These neighbourhoods lie in the foothills of the Peak District and the constituency stretches past the suburbs to include an area of rural hamlets, farms and moorland. House prices across the constituency are generally higher than the UK average and considerably higher than the rest of Yorkshire.
Residents of Sheffield Hallam are older than average; there is a large student population due to the constituency's proximity to Sheffield's universities, however there is a low working-age adult population and a high proportion of retirees. Residents have very high levels of income and homeownership and the child poverty rate is less than half the overall UK figure. Residents are very well-educated and a high proportion work in the education, health and finance sectors. The percentage claiming unemployment benefits is less than half the UK-wide rate. White people made up 88% of the population at the 2021 census.
Most of Sheffield Hallam is represented by Liberal Democrats at the local city council, with some Labour Party councillors elected in Crookes and Crosspool and Green Party councillors elected in Ecclesall. Voters in this constituency strongly supported remaining in the European Union in the 2016 referendum; an estimated 69% voted to remain compared to the UK-wide figure of 48%.
History Prior to its creation Hallam was a part of the larger Sheffield Borough constituency, which was represented by two Members of Parliament (MPs). In 1885 the Redistribution of Seats Act, which sought to eliminate constituencies with more than one MP and for the first time allow approximately equal representation of the people, led to the break-up of the constituency into five divisions: each represented by a single MP, as today. Hallam was one of these new divisions. Its first MP, the Conservative Charles Stuart-Wortley, had previously been an MP in the Sheffield constituency, elected for the first time in 1880.
Hallam was regarded in 2004 as the wealthiest constituency in the north of England and was held by the Conservative Party for all but two years from 1885 to 1997. At the 1997 general election, Richard Allan of the Liberal Democrats took the seat with an 18.5% swing, becoming only the second non-Tory ever to win it. He handed the seat to fellow Lib Dem and future UK Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg in 2005; who held it until his defeat by Labour's Jared O'Mara at the 2017 snap general election. That year saw the constituency record its highest turnout in 66 years, with 77.8% of the electorate going to the polls.
Sheffield Hallam was once only constituency in South Yorkshire not to be considered a Labour stronghold, returning its first Labour MP in 2017. It was a safe Conservative seat from 1885 until 1997. This long period of Conservative dominance included the period under Margaret Thatcher's premiership, starkly contrasting with most seats in the county and the neighbouring county of Derbyshire; the constituency was the only Conservative seat in South Yorkshire in the three elections before the 1997 General Election.
At the 1997 general election, Richard Allan of the Liberal Democrats took the seat with an 18.5% swing. He was followed by Nick Clegg in 2005, who was leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015 and Deputy Prime Minister from 2010 to 2015. Clegg held it until his defeat by Labour's Jared O'Mara at the 2017 snap general election. That year saw the constituency record its highest turnout in 66 years, with 77.8% of the electorate going to the polls.
From 25 October 2017 until 3 July 2018, O'Mara had the whip withdrawn as a Labour MP and sat as an independent. It was later restored but he quit the Labour Party shortly afterwards. He then sat as an independent MP until leaving parliament. O'Mara announced he would resign as an MP in September 2019, citing mental health issues. He postponed his resignation until the 2019 general election.
Olivia Blake won the seat for the Labour Party in the 2019 general election with a small majority of 1.2%. In her maiden speech to Parliament, Blake said that the Sheffield Hallam constituency had a "very long history of social justice", as mythology points to a Yorkshire origin for Robin Hood in Loxley, thereby lending her support to the idea that Loxley was the birthplace of Robin Hood.
Blake retained her seat at the 2024 general election with a much increased majority of 15.9%, and 23,875 votes in total.
Boundaries 1885–1918: The Borough of Sheffield wards of: Nether and Upper Hallam, and parts of the wards of Ecclesall and St George's.
1918–1950: The County Borough of Sheffield wards of: Crookesmoor and Hallam, and part of Broomhill ward.
1950–1955: The County Borough of Sheffield wards of: Broomhill, Ecclesall, and Hallam.
1955–1974: The County Borough of Sheffield wards of: Broomhill, Crookesmoor, Ecclesall, and Hallam.
1974–1983: The County Borough of Sheffield wards of: Broomhill, Dore, Ecclesall, Hallam, and Nether Edge.
1983–1997: The City of Sheffield wards of: Broomhill, Dore, Ecclesall, Hallam, and Nether Edge.
1997–2010: The City of Sheffield wards of: Broomhill, Dore, Ecclesall, and Hallam.
2010–2024: The City of Sheffield wards of: Crookes; Dore and Totley; Ecclesall; Fulwood; and Stannington (as they existed on 12 April 2005).
2024–present: The City of Sheffield wards of: Crookes & Crosspool, Dore & Totley, Ecclesall, Fulwood, and Stannington (as they existed in 1 December 2020).
Minor changes to align with new ward boundaries.
Hallam borders Derbyshire Dales, High Peak, North East Derbyshire, Penistone and Stocksbridge, Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, Sheffield Central and Sheffield Heeley.
Members of Parliament ElectionMemberParty 1885 Charles Stuart-Wortley Conservative 1916 (by) H. A. L. Fisher Liberal 1918 Douglas Vickers Conservative 1922 Frederick Sykes Conservative 1928 (by) Louis Smith Conservative 1939 (by) Roland Jennings Conservative 1959 John Osborn Conservative 1987 Irvine Patnick Conservative 1997 Richard Allan Liberal Democrats 2005 Nick Clegg Liberal Democrats 2017 Jared O'Mara Labour Oct 2017 Independent 3 Jul 2018 Labour 12 Jul 2018 Independent 2019 Olivia Blake Labour
Elections
Elections in the 2020s
Elections in the 2010s
2019 notional result Party Vote % Labour 21,004 35.0 Liberal Democrats 19,896 33.1 Conservative 15,435 25.7 Green 1,799 3.0 Brexit Party 1,641 2.7 Others 291 0.5Turnout60,06678.4Electorate76,637
In 2010, Sheffield Hallam was one of a number of constituencies that experienced problems on polling day leading to some people being unable to cast their vote. In this case, voters at the Ranmoor polling station were subjected to long queues and some voters were turned away when polls closed at 10 pm, with Liberal Democrat candidate Nick Clegg apologising to those voters affected. Acting Returning Officer John Mothersole said that staff had been "caught out" by a high turnout, and the Electoral Commission instigated a review of procedures in Hallam and other constituencies where similar problems had occurred.
Elections in the 2000s
Elections in the 1990s
Elections in the 1980s
Elections in the 1970s
Elections in the 1960s
Elections in the 1950s
Elections in the 1940s
Elections in the 1930s
Elections in the 1920s
Elections in the 1910s
1916 by-election followed the resignation of Charles Stuart-Wortley on 16 December. Herbert Fisher of the Liberal Party was elected unopposed, becoming Hallam's first non-Unionist MP.
Elections in the 1900s
Elections in the 1890s
Elections in the 1880s
Constituency polls during the 2010–2015 Parliament Due in part to the high profile of the constituency's then-MP Nick Clegg, who served as Deputy Prime Minister during the 2010–15 Parliament, Sheffield Hallam was unusual in having had seven constituency-specific opinion polls conducted between 2010 and 2015. Each of these polls suggested significant changes in the vote share compared to 2010 general election.
The first poll, in October 2010, suggested a drop in the Lib Dem lead in the seat to just 2%, from nearly 30% at the general election five months earlier. Five of the six remaining polls, which appeared between May 2014 and May 2015, suggested that Labour was in the lead in the seat by this time, with the Labour lead fluctuating to between 1% and 10%, and one put the Lib Dems in the lead.
On average across all seven opinion polls, Labour had a lead over the Lib Dems of 2.5%. The Conservatives came second in one poll, and third in the other six polls. The May 2015 ICM poll scores displayed are those of the constituency voting intention question. The same poll also carried the standard voting intention question, which showed a Labour lead.
Dates Polling organisation/client Sample size Lab Con LD UKIP Green Others Lead8 June 2017 General Election 2017 57,020 38.4% 23.8% 34.7% 1.6% 1.4% 0.1% 3.8% over LD 7 May 2015 General Election 2015 55,481 35.8% 13.6% 40.0% 6.4% 3.2% 0.9% 4.2% over Lab 1–3 May 2015 ICM/Guardian 501 35% 12% 42% 7% 3% 2% 7% over Lab 22–28 Apr 2015 Lord Ashcroft 1,000 37% 15% 36% 7% 4% 1% 1% over LD 22–28 Mar 2015 Lord Ashcroft 1,001 36% 16% 34% 7% 6% 1% 2% over LD 22–29 Jan 2015 Survation/Unite 1,011 33% 22% 23% 9% 12% <0.5% 10% over LD 20–22 Nov 2014 Survation/Lord Ashcroft 962 30% 19% 27%This poll originally, erroneously, showed a small lead for the LDs: see http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2015/02/sheffield-hallam-doncaster-north-thanet-south/#more-7536 13% 10% 1% 3% over LD 29 Apr–4 May 2014 ICM/Lord Oakeshott 500 33% 24% 23% 10% 8% 1% 9% over Con 1–4 Oct 2010 Populus/Lord Ashcroft 1,000 31% 28% 33% N/A N/A 8% 2% over Lab6 May 2010 General Election Result 51,135 16.1% 23.5% 53.4% 2.3% 1.8% 2.7% 29.9% over Con
See also Parliamentary constituencies in South Yorkshire
Notes
References
External links Vote 2001 – Sheffield Hallam BBC News Election 2005 – Sheffield Hallam BBC News Election history – Sheffield Hallam The Guardian
Political Science Resources Election results from 1951 to the present F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918 – 1949 F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1950 – 1970 Sheffield General Election Results 1945 – 2001, Sheffield City Council UK Constituency Maps Sheffield, Hallam UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 1997 – April 2010) at MapIt UK Sheffield, Hallam UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at MapIt UK Sheffield Hallam UK Parliament constituency (boundaries from June 2024) at MapIt UK