Coventry East (UK Parliament constituency)

Coventry East
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1945–February 1974
Number of members	one

Coventry East was a parliamentary constituency in the city of Coventry in the West Midlands. 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.

History

Until 1945, the city of Coventry was represented by a single Member. Population growth meant that it had grown to 89,001 electors at the time of the 1935 general election, and in the 1939 electoral register it had 87,487 electors. The County Borough of Coventry had also expanded its boundaries in the late 1930s, taking in an additional 66,425 electors. Two nearby divisions of Warwickshire had exceptionally large electorates: Nuneaton at 112,503 and Tamworth at 118,131. Accordingly, the area was included in the Schedule to the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1944 as abnormally large constituencies to be divided by the Boundary Commission before the first post-war general election.

The Boundary Commission proposed to create two divisions within the new boundaries of the County Borough, with Coventry East comprising ten wards and having a 1939 electorate of 76,860. On the new electoral register compiled for the 1945 general election, the constituency had 74,676 electors on the civilian residence register, 67 on the Business Premises register, and 5,166 on the service register.

A new Boundary Commission review began in 1965 by which time Coventry's electorate had increased and the city was allocated four seats; they were named after the ordinal points of the compass. The recommendations of the Commission came into effect at the February 1974 general election, at which point Coventry East ceased to exist as a Parliamentary constituency.

Boundaries

When initially set up by the Boundary Commission in 1945, it comprised ten wards of the County Borough of Coventry: All Saints, Foleshill, Hernall, Hill Fields, Longford, Lower Stoke, St. Mary's, St. Paul's, Upper Stoke and Walsgrave.

Ward boundary changes in Coventry took place before the Boundary Commission looked at constituency boundaries again; Coventry also added a third seat. The division from 1950 was defined as including five wards of the County Borough of Coventry: Charterhouse and Binley, Longford, Lower Stoke, Upper Stoke and Walsgrave. No alterations were made in the First Periodical Report of the Boundary Commission in 1954.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1945	Richard Crossman	Labour
Feb 1974		constituency abolished

Election results

Election	Political result		Candidate		Party	Votes	%	±%
1945 General Election Electorate: 79,853 Turnout: 71.1%		Labour win Majority: 18,749 (33.0%)		Richard Howard Stafford Crossman	Labour	34,379	60.5
				Harry Weston	Conservative	15,630	27.5
				Capt. William Alexander	Communist	3,986	7.0
				Charles Payne	Liberal	2,820	5.0
1950 General Election Electorate: 58,254 Turnout: 88.2%		Labour hold Majority: 13,453 (26.2%)		Richard Howard Stafford Crossman	Labour	30,456	59.3
				Timothy Berthier Meek	Conservative	17,003	33.1
				Samuel Henry Davis	Liberal	3,420	6.7
				William Alexander	Communist	487	0.9
1951 General Election Electorate: 60,115 Turnout: 85.7%		Labour hold Majority: 12,671 (24.6%)		Richard Howard Stafford Crossman	Labour	32,108	62.3	+3.0
				Gavin Bramhall Welby	Conservative	19,437	37.7	+4.6
1955 General Election Electorate: 60,769 Turnout: 81.2%		Labour hold Majority: 6,104 (12.4%)		Richard Howard Stafford Crossman	Labour	27,712	56.2	–6.1
				Dr. Michael Ayerst Hooker	Conservative	21,608	43.8	+6.1
1959 General Election Electorate: 70,689 Turnout: 81.7%		Labour hold Majority: 7,762 (13.4%)		Richard Howard Stafford Crossman	Labour	32,744	56.7	+0.5
				William John Biffen	Conservative	24,982	43.3	–0.5
1964 General Election Electorate: 77,821 Turnout: 77.9%		Labour hold Majority: 13,038 (21.5%)		Richard Howard Stafford Crossman	Labour	36,246	59.8	+3.1
				Ian Reginald Edward Gow	Conservative	23,208	38.3	–5.0
				Harry Bourne	Communist	1,138	1.9
1966 General Election Electorate: 78,131 Turnout: 77.3%		Labour hold Majority: 18,696 (30.9%)		Richard Howard Stafford Crossman	Labour	36,757	60.8	+1.0
				John Wakeham	Conservative	18,061	29.9	–8.4
				Jan Maria Mokrzycki	Liberal	4,235	7.0
				Harry Bourne	Communist	1,368	2.3	+0.4
1970 General Election Electorate: 86,603 Turnout: 70.6%		Labour hold Majority: 12,265 (20.0%)		Richard Howard Stafford Crossman	Labour	36,275	59.3	–1.5
				Maurice Edward Jones	Conservative	24,010	39.3	+9.4
				John Hosey	Communist	841	1.4	–0.9

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 6)