Demographically contrasting with neighbouring inner-city seats with similarly high Labour majorities, this constituency is the most affluent of all the Manchester seats, as it contains the medium-to-high income average areas of Chorlton and Didsbury, as well as mixed[2] Old Moat and Withington neighbourhoods.[3] Manchester Withington is a seat south of Manchester's city centre with a sizeable student population. It also has a particularly high number of young professionals and graduates.[2] The southern border withWythenshawe is theRiver Mersey, along which there are mostly green spaces, such asFletcher Moss Park andChorlton Water Park. Chorlton and Didsbury are mostly middle-class areas, with houses on leafy roads and thriving independent shops on their respective high streets. House prices are higher than other parts of Manchester, and the area has one of the highest proportion of graduates in the city. Many of the large Victorian family houses in Didsbury have been split into apartments for young professionals moving into the area.[4]
In the post-war period, Manchester Withington has elected all three major parties. MostlyConservative before 1987 (with three years ofLiberal Party representation near its 1918 inception), it even resisted being gained by Labour in itslandslide victories in 1945 and 1966. However, in 1987 the seat turned red for the first time and remained so until 2005 when it was gained by Liberal DemocratJohn Leech. Leech took the seat with an 18% swing – the largest of the 2005 general election. He retained the seat in 2010, with both of the major parties' losing candidates becoming MPs elsewhere by the next election:Lucy Powell of Labour inManchester Central in a2012 by-election, and ConservativeChris Green inBolton West in 2015.
Amidst a UK-wide collapse in support for the Lib Dems, the seat swung back to Labour in 2015 and in 2017 it became one of the safest Labour seats in the country, with an almost 30,000 majority forJeff Smith. It was also one of the few seats in England outside London in 2015 whereUKIP lost their deposit.
Smith retained the seat in 2019 with a slightly reduced majority, but this was halved in 2024 when a resurgentGreen Party jumped from fourth to second place, overtaking the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives falling to fourth place, narrowly avoiding losing their deposit.
Following a local government review of ward boundaries which became effective from May 2018, the contents of the constituency were adjusted, but this did not affect its boundaries.[6]
Chorlton; Chorlton Park; Didsbury East; Didsbury West; Old Moat; Withington.[7]
The boundaries were subject to minor changes to align with the revised ward boundaries, with the whole of the Burnage ward being included in new constituency ofGorton and Denton.
^British parliamentary election results, 1918–1949 by FWS Craig
^BURDITT, George Frederick’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014accessed 18 Sept 2017
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