South Swindon is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

. It elects one Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Boundaries

The constituency was created in 1997 from parts of the seats of Swindon

Swindon (UK Parliament constituency)

Swindon was a parliamentary constituency in the town of Swindon in Wiltshire, England.It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from the 1918 general election until it was abolished for the 1997 general election.It was then replaced by the...

 and Devizes

Devizes (UK Parliament constituency)

Devizes is a parliamentary constituency in Wiltshire, England, which is now represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and before 1707 in the House of Commons of England....

. This seat with a population of around 93,000 incorporates the southern half of the town as well as the rural areas and villages to the south and east of Swindon

Swindon

Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...

.
It used slightly amended boundaries for the 2010 election, which saw it lose South Marston

South Marston

South Marston is a village in north-east Wiltshire, England. The name Marston derives from the common English village name meaning marsh farm. It is part of the Borough of Swindon. Early in World War 2, a Ministry of Aircraft Production shadow factory and airfield were built for the Phillips &...

 to North Swindon. The border now runs from Dorcan across to Bishopstone

Bishopstone, Swindon

Bishopstone is a village and civil parish in the Swindon unitary authority of Wiltshire, England, about six miles east of Swindon, and just west of the county border with Oxfordshire.Since 1934 the civil parish has included the village of Hinton Parva...

 and then down to Russley Park before running west to Barbury Castle

Barbury Castle

Barbury Castle is an Iron Age hill fort situated in Wiltshire, England. It is one of several such forts found along the ancient Ridgeway route. The site, which lies within the Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, has been managed as a country park by Swindon Borough Council since 1971...

. From there it runs north to the Roughmoor area and loops back down to incorporate West Swindon, before following the railway line east through the town and back to Dorcan.
In addition to Swindon it includes several other population centres such as Wroughton

Wroughton

Wroughton is a large village in Wiltshire, England. It is part of the Borough of Swindon and is south of Swindon.-History:The earliest evidence of human presence in the area is from the Mesolithic period, although this is fairly limited...

, Chiseldon

Chiseldon

Chiseldon is a village in the borough of Swindon, Wiltshire, England.The village lies on the edge of the Marlborough Downs, a mile south of junction 15 of the M4 motorway, on the A346 between Swindon and Marlborough...

, Wanborough

Wanborough, Wiltshire

Wanborough is a village and civil parish in the borough of Swindon, Wiltshire. The village is about southeast of Swindon town centre. The parish includes the hamlet of Foxhill, southeast of the village.-History:...

 and Liddington

Liddington

Liddington is a village near Swindon in Wiltshire, England. The settlement lies south east of Swindon town, close to the M4 motorway, junction 15 of which is about 1.5 kilometres away via the B4192 - known as Purley Road where it passes through Liddington village.The parish as a whole has been an...

.

Constituency history

Swindon is a railway town historically and until the latter part of the 20th century the railway works were a major employer in the town. These days Swindon is the home of a number of major companies who provide employment for the residents. Some major employers located in South Swindon include Intel's European headquarters, Nationwide's headquarters and Zurich Financial Services' UK headquarters.
Created in 1997, the South Swindon constituency was originally a fairly safe Labour seat. They originally had a lead of more than 5,000 which was extended in 2001 to more than 7,000 but then dropped dramatically to just 1,353 in 2005, making it a highly marginal seat. In 2010, the Conservatives gained South Swindon from Labour at the general election.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1997 United Kingdom general election, 1997 The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...	Julia Drown Julia Drown Julia Kate Drown was the Labour member of Parliament for Swindon South, in south-west England, from 1997 until 2005.Drown was a National Health Service accountant before her election. A mother of young children, she was at the forefront of campaigns to make Parliament more child-friendly,...	Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
	2005 United Kingdom general election, 2005 The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....	Anne Snelgrove	Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
	2010	Robert Buckland Robert Buckland Robert James Buckland is a British barrister and Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Swindon South, having won the seat from the Labour Party at the 2010 general election....	Conservative Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s