Islington South and Finsbury
Borough constituency for theHouse of Commons
Interactive map of boundaries from 2024
Location within Greater London
County	Greater London
Electorate	75,905 (2023)[1]
Current constituency
Created	1974 (1974)
Member of Parliament	Emily Thornberry (Labour)
Seats	One
Created from	Islington South West, andShoreditch and Finsbury

Islington South and Finsbury is aconstituency created in 1974 and represented in theHouse of Commons of theUK Parliament since 2005 byEmily Thornberry of theLabour Party. Thornberry served asShadow Foreign Secretary from 2016 until 2020 and asShadow Attorney General for England and Wales from 2021 to 2024.

This densely populated seat covers Barnsbury, part of Highbury, Islington proper, and Clerkenwell and Finsbury adjoining theCity. It contains many desirable apartments and townhouses as well as 20th century social housing developments.

Theborough constituency has been described as "the natural habitat of the hypocritical, well-off, ostensibly liberalchattering classes"^[2] including higher earners, leaders in the public sector, critics, entertainers, writers and former Prime MinistersTony Blair andBoris Johnson. Despite this reputation for liberal affluence there is also significant deprivation in the constituency and its neighbourIslington North.^[3]

The seat covers the southern part of theLondon Borough of Islington, includingBarnsbury,Canonbury, major parts ofHolloway,Kings Cross and the former area of theMetropolitan Borough of Finsbury, which includes Bunhill,Pentonville andClerkenwell. From 2024, it also includes theDe Beauvoir Town neighbourhood in the Borough of Hackney.

1974–1983: TheLondon Borough of Islington wards of Barnsbury, Bunhill, Clerkenwell, Pentonville, St Mary, St Peter, and Thornhill.

1983–2010: As above, save that Pentonville was abolished and Canonbury East, Canonbury West, Hillmarton, Holloway were created or added to the seat.

2010–2024: The London Borough of Islington wards ofBarnsbury,Bunhill,Caledonian,Canonbury,Clerkenwell,Holloway, St Mary's and St Peter's.

2024–present: TheLondon Borough of Hackney ward ofDe Beauvoir, and the London Borough of Islington wards ofBarnsbury,Bunhill,Caledonian,Canonbury,Clerkenwell,Holloway,Laycock,St Mary's and St James', andSt Peter's and Canalside.^[4]

Expanded to bring its electorate within the permitted range by adding the Borough of Hackney ward of De Beauvoir. The area within the Borough of Islington was unchanged, but following a review of local authority ward boundaries which came into effect on 4 May 2022, some of the ward names have been modified.

Islington South and Finsbury was created in 1974 from part of the former Islington South West and Shoreditch and Finsbury constituencies. In 1983, its boundaries changed when theIslington Central constituency was abolished and its area split between Islington South and Finsbury and Islington North.

Islington was an early stronghold for theSDP. All three sitting Labour MPs defected to the party together with a majority of the borough council. This was at the time when theLabour Party voted for in Conference leaving theEEC (Common Market) and abolishing nuclear weapons during theCold War which largely triggered the split. However, in spite of their less radical position than theLabour Party, they won only one seat to Labour's 59 in the1982 Islington Council elections^[5] and at the1983 general election, Labour managed to narrowly retain the seat. The new MP,Chris Smith was the first MP to come out as gay and was aligned with the Labourleft, and retained the seat with a slight increase in his majority in1987. By 1992, the post-merged SDP, theLiberal Democrats, had faded locally, and no longer had the former MP as a candidate, and Smith managed to win a majority exceeding 10,000 votes.

The Liberal Democrat revival in local elections in Islington, which saw them take control of the council in 2000, began to cross over to Parliamentary elections in 2001. In2002, the Liberal Democrats won every council seat in Islington South and Finsbury, and Smith's subsequent retirement and the resultant loss of incumbency made the constituency vulnerable once again in 2005. However Smith's successor,Emily Thornberry, retained the seat with anarrow majority of 484 votes over the Liberal Democrat challenger, Barnsbury councillor Bridget Fox.^[6] — the seat therefore became one of the ten most marginal inBritain. However, in thelocal council elections a year later, Labour made an almost full recovery locally and won a majority of the seats in Islington South and Finsbury, defeating both Bridget Fox and the-then council leader Steve Hitchins.^[7] At the2010 general election, Thornberry increased her majority over Fox. In2014 the Liberal Democrats lost all their remaining seats on the council. The 2015 general election result made the seat the 93rd safest of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority.^[8]

• List of parliamentary constituencies in London
• List of parliamentary constituencies in Islington

• Politics Resources (election results from 1922 onwards)
• Electoral Calculus (election results from 1955 onwards)
• Islington South and Finsbury UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 1997 – April 2010) atMapIt UK
• Islington South and Finsbury UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) atMapIt UK
• Islington South and Finsbury UK Parliament constituency (boundaries from June 2024) atMapIt UK

51°32′17″N0°06′22″W / 51.538°N 0.106°W /51.538; -0.106

• Parliamentary constituencies in London
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1974
• Politics of the London Borough of Islington

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