Surbiton was a borough constituency created for the 1955 general election and abolished for the 1997 general election, in Surrey until 1965 and thereafter in outer south-west London. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom by the first past the post system of election.
History This was in the safe/marginal seat spectrum irrefutably a safe Conservative seat during its 32-year lifetime. The party positioned in second position was also unchanged until it changed once in the course of the seat's history. The election when this change took place was the 1983 United Kingdom general election. The narrowest majority was the General Election 1966 at 15.7%.
Boundaries 1955–1974: The Municipal Borough of Surbiton.
1974–1983: The London Borough of Kingston upon Thames wards of Berrylands, Chessington, Hook and Southborough, St Mark's and Seething Wells, Surbiton Hill, Tolworth East, Tolworth South, and Tolworth West.
1983–1997: The London Borough of Kingston upon Thames wards of Berrylands, Chessington North, Chessington South, Hook, St Mark's, Surbiton Hill, Tolworth East, Tolworth South, and Tolworth West.
The constituency was made up of the eastern part of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in south-west London, centred on the area of Surbiton. In 1997, it was absorbed into the new and larger Kingston and Surbiton constituency after the Boundary Commission for England recommended that a seat be lost in the twinned boroughs of Kingston and Richmond.C. Rallings & M. Thrasher, The Media Guide to the New Parliamentary Constituencies, p. 12 (Plymouth: LGC Elections Centre, 1995).
Members of Parliament ElectionMemberPartyNotes 1955 Sir Nigel Fisher Conservative Member for Hitchin (1950–1955)1983 Richard Tracey Conservative Minister for Sport (1985–1987)Contested Kingston and Surbiton following redistribution 1997 constituency abolished: see Kingston and Surbiton
Election results Elections in the 1950s
Elections in the 1960s
Elections in the 1970s
1979 notional result Party Vote % Conservative 19,989 56.7 Labour 9,189 26.1 Liberal 6,085 17.3Turnout35,263Electorate
Elections in the 1980s
Elections in the 1990s
See also List of parliamentary constituencies in London
References