Birmingham Hodge Hill

Birmingham Hodge Hill was a constituency of part of the city of Birmingham represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament from 2004 to 2024 by Liam Byrne of the Labour Party.
Under the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, the seat was abolished and largely replaced with constituency of Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North. It was first contested at the 2024 general election, with Byrne being re-elected for the new seat.

Constituency profile

The constituency covered a diverse area of east Birmingham, including the predominantly Asian inner-city area of Washwood Heath and the mostly white area of Shard End on the city's eastern boundary, as well as Hodge Hill itself. There is roughly a three-way split of social housing, privately rented and privately owned homes. The area has a high proportion of low-income households, with the constituency having one of the highest Indices of Multiple Deprivation in the West Midlands for its central area.

Boundaries

1983–1997: The City of Birmingham wards of Hodge Hill, Shard End, and Washwood Heath '.
1997–2010: The City of Birmingham wards of Hodge Hill, Shard End, and Washwood Heath '.
2010–2018: The City of Birmingham wards of Bordesley Green, Hodge Hill, Shard End, and Washwood Heath '.
When the Hodge Hill area committee district of Birmingham was created in 2004, its boundaries were those of the constituency.
2018–2024''': Following a local government boundary review, which did not effect the parliamentary boundaries, the contents of the constituency were as follows with effect from May 2018:

The City of Birmingham wards of Alum Rock, Bromford & Hodge Hill, Heartlands, Shard End and Ward End, most of Glebe Farm & Tile Cross, and Small Heath, and small parts of Bordesley & Highgate, and Bordesley Green.

Further to the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the Boundary Commission for England abolished the constituency and created the new seat of Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North as its primary successor; Alum Rock was transferred to Birmingham Ladywood and Small Heath to Birmingham Yardley, with the bulk of the remainder being included in the new seat.

History

The constituency was created in 1983, taking much of abolished Birmingham Stechford, the remainder of which bolstered Birmingham Yardley. The predecessor seat was won by the Labour candidate in all but one election since its 1950 creation.
The first Member of Parliament was Terry Davis, who had been MP for Birmingham Stechford from 1979 to 1983. In 2004, the appointment of Davis as secretary general of the Council of Europe resulted in a fiercely contested by-election. The seat saw a strong result by the Liberal Democrat candidate, who hoped to build on her party's previous by-election gain at Brent East, as well as vote splitting by the similarly aligned-to-Labour, anti-war RESPECT The Unity Coalition candidate. On a low turnout, the incumbent party, represented by Liam Byrne, held the seat by a margin of 460 votes over the Liberal Democrats. The 2015 result made the seat the ninth safest of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority. In 2017, Byrne received over 80% of the vote.

Election results 1983–2024

Elections in the 2000s

Note: percentage changes are from the figures at the 2001 general election, not the 2004 by-election.

Elections in the 2010s

¹: The Liberal Democrats suspended Waheed Rafiq from the party over numerous antisemitic and other offensive social media posts. It was too late to prevent him standing in the election and his name remained on the ballot paper as a Liberal Democrat. Rafiq polled the lowest percentage for any Liberal Democrat candidate in the 2019 election.