Smethwick (constituency)

Smethwick is a constituency in the West Midlands county of England, within the borough of Sandwell. It covers the towns of Smethwick and Blackheath and the residential areas of Warley and Brandhall.

This is an urban constituency covering towns and suburbs around 4 miles (6.4 km) west of the centre of Birmingham. Smethwick is an industrial town generally considered part of the Black Country, a region of connected towns and villages between Birmingham and Wolverhampton associated with coal mining, steelmaking and the birth of the Industrial Revolution. Smethwick and Blackheath are highly-deprived with most residents living in dense flats or terraces, many of which are socially rented. Brandhall is wealthier and more suburban in character with mostly interwar-period semi-detached properties.^[3][4] House prices across the constituency are generally lower than the rest of the West Midlands region and considerably lower than the UK average.^[5]

Residents of Smethwick are younger than average with a low retired population.^[6] They have low levels of income and homeownership and the child poverty rate is double the nationwide figure.^[5][7] Residents have low levels of education and a high proportion work in the retail, education and transport sectors.^[5][8] The percentage claiming unemployment benefits is nearly double the overall UK rate.^[7]

The Smethwick constituency is ethnically diverse. White people made up 47% of the population at the 2021 census. Asians were the largest ethnic minority group at 31%, mostly of Indian or Pakistani origin and largely concentrated in Smethwick town where they made up a majority of residents. Most of the Asian population were Muslims, although Smethwick contains one of the country's largest Sikh communities, who made up 13% of the constituency's population.^[9] Black people were 11% of residents.^[10]

At the local borough council, Smethwick town is mostly represented by the Labour Party whilst the west of the constituency (Blackheath and Brandhall) elected primarily Reform UK councillors. Voters in this constituency strongly supported leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum; an estimated 61% voted in favour of Brexit compared to the UK-wide figure of 52%.^[5]

The constituency gained national interest during the 1918 general election when the Suffragette leader Christabel Pankhurst decided to stand as a Woman's Party candidate supporting the Coalition. She was one of 17 women candidates standing for Parliament at the first opportunity. This was her one and only parliamentary campaign which she lost to the Labour candidate.^[12]

In 1945 the constituency held the first post-war by-election when the winning Labour candidate, Alfred Dobbs, was killed in a road traffic accident less than twenty four hours after the count.^[13] The constituency was the subject of national media coverage during the 1964 general election when Peter Griffiths, the Conservative Party candidate, gained the seat against the national trend, unseating the Labour Party sitting member, Patrick Gordon Walker, a front bench opposition spokesman in the previous Parliament, in a campaign with racial overtones.^[14]

In 1966, 6.5% of the constituency was born in the New Commonwealth.^[15]

• List of parliamentary constituencies in the West Midlands (county)
• List of parliamentary constituencies in West Midlands (region)
• Smethwick (the town)
• 1926 Smethwick by-election
• 1945 Smethwick by-election
• Smethwick in the 1964 general election