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Birmingham East
Birmingham East
Former borough constituency; for the House of Commons
County	Warwickshire
1885–1918
Seats	One
Created from	Birmingham
Replaced by	Birmingham Yardley, Birmingham Sparkbrook

Birmingham East was a parliamentary constituency in the city of Birmingham, England. 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 voting system.

The constituency was created upon the abolition of the Birmingham constituency in 1885, and was itself abolished for the 1918 general election.

Boundaries

Before 1885 Birmingham, in the county of Warwickshire, had been a three-member constituency (see Birmingham (UK Parliament constituency) for further details). Under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 the parliamentary borough of Birmingham was split into seven single-member divisions, one of which was Birmingham East. It consisted of the wards of Duddeston and Nechells, the local government district of Saltley, and the hamlet of Little Bromwich.

The division was bounded to the west by Birmingham North, to the north by Aston Manor, to the east by Tamworth and to the south (from west to east) by Birmingham Central, Birmingham South and Birmingham Bordesley.

In the 1918 redistribution of parliamentary seats, the Representation of the People Act 1918 provided for twelve new Birmingham divisions. The East division was abolished.

Members of Parliament

	Member	Party
1885	William Cook	Liberal
1886	Henry Matthews	Conservative
1895	Sir John Benjamin Stone	Conservative
1910 (Jan)	Arthur Steel-Maitland	Conservative
1918	Constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1885: Birmingham East^[1]^[2]^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	William Cook	4,277	58.6
	Conservative	Francis Lowe	3,025	41.4
Majority			1,252	17.2
Turnout			7,302	77.8
Registered electors			9,382
	Liberal win (new seat)

General election 1886: Birmingham East^[1]^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Matthews	3,341	56.7	+15.3
	Liberal	William Cook	2,552	43.3	−15.3
Majority			789	13.4	N/A
Turnout			5,893	62.8	−15.0
Registered electors			9,382
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing	+15.3

Matthews was appointed Home Secretary, requiring a by-election.

By-election, 11 Aug 1886: Birmingham East^[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Matthews	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1890s

General election 1892: Birmingham East^[1]^[2]^[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Matthews	5,041	61.7	+5.0
	Liberal	Henry Charles Fulford	2,832	34.7	−8.6
	Independent Liberal	Daniel Shilton Collin^{[n 1]}	296	3.6	New
Majority			2,209	27.0	+13.6
Turnout			8,169	78.5	+15.7
Registered electors			10,404
	Conservative hold		Swing	+6.8

General election 1895: Birmingham East^[1]^[2]^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Benjamin Stone	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1900s

General election 1900: Birmingham East^[1]^[2]^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Benjamin Stone	4,989	63.8	*N/A*
	Lib-Lab	John Valentine Stevens	2,835	36.2	New
Majority			2,154	27.6	N/A
Turnout			7,824	59.9	N/A
Registered electors			13,070
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

General election 1906: Birmingham East^[1]^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Benjamin Stone	5,928	52.6	−11.2
	Labour Repr. Cmte.	James Holmes	5,343	47.4	+11.2
Majority			585	5.2	−22.4
Turnout			11,271	77.9	+18.0
Registered electors			14,469
	Conservative hold		Swing	−11.2

Elections in the 1910s

General election January 1910: Birmingham East^[1]^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Arthur Steel-Maitland	8,460	68.1	+15.5
	Labour	J. J. Stephenson	3,958	31.9	−15.5
Majority			4,502	36.2	+31.0
Turnout			12,418	81.5	+1.6
	Conservative hold		Swing	15.5

General election December 1910: Birmingham East^[1]^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Arthur Steel-Maitland	6,639	67.5	−0.6
	Lib-Lab	John Valentine Stevens	3,190	32.5	+0.6
Majority			3,449	35.0	−1.2
Turnout			9,829	64.5	−17.0
	Conservative hold		Swing	-1.2

General Election 1914–15:

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;

Unionist: Arthur Steel-Maitland
Labour: George Shann

In popular culture

Birmingham East was used in BBC sitcom Yes Minister, and Jim Hacker was its MP. Although Hacker's Party was left unspecified, he was shown to be elected in the fictional 1981 general election, defeating a Conservative and Labour challenger. During the declaration of the result, Hacker was shown wearing a white rosette.

1981 general election: Birmingham East
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	n/a	James George Hacker	21,793	48.2
	n/a	Arthur William Gaunt	19,321	42.7
	n/a	David Lloyd Evans	4,106	9.1
Majority			2,472	5.5
Turnout			45,220
	n/a hold		Swing

Notes and References

Notes

^ Collin was associated with the United Kingdom Alliance

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, FWS Craig
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f The Liberal Year Book, 1907
^ Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1886
^ Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1896
^ ^a ^b Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
^ ^a ^b Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1916