Enfield Southgate
Formerborough constituency for theHouse of Commons
Boundary of Enfield Southgate in Greater London
County	Greater London
Electorate	64,932 (December 2010)[1]
1950–2024
Created from	Enfield (western minority; on abolition) andWood Green (bulk of; on abolition)
Replaced by	Southgate and Wood Green (majority)

Enfield Southgate was aconstituency in theHouse of Commons of theUK Parliament. It was created in 1950 asSouthgate.

In the1997 general election, it returneda memorable result when prominent ConservativeMichael Portillo lost the previously safe seat toStephen Twigg of the Labour Party.

Further to the completion of the2023 review of Westminster constituencies, the majority of the seat was incorporated into the new constituency ofSouthgate and Wood Green.^[2]

From 1950 to the1983 general election, this constituency was known as Southgate. The prefix of the seat's London Borough was added to some parts of the legislation, but not others, in 1974. In 1984, Conservative MPAnthony Berry who represented Enfield Southgate was killed in theBrighton hotel bombing by theProvisional IRA, triggering aby-election.

It was regarded as a safe seat for the Conservative party, but it gained national attention in the1997 general election whenMichael Portillo,Secretary of State for Defence was unexpectedly defeated on a massiveswing – the 'Portillo moment'. Portillo had been widely expected to contest the Conservative leadership and his defeat the media took to epitomise theLabour landslide victory. The victorious candidate,Stephen Twigg, increased his majority atthe following election. In the2005 general election, Twigg's majority was the largest overturned, with a swing of 8.7% to the Conservative candidateDavid Burrowes.

The 2015 result gave the seat the 60th most marginal majority of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority,^[3] with Labour gaining the seat in the2017 general election on a substantial 9.7% swing. Enfield Southgate is one of five constituencies, the others beingCroydon Central,Leeds North West,Peterborough andReading East, which elected Labour MPs in 2017 having not done so since2001.

This constituency is located in the western parts of theLondon Borough of Enfield. Less out-of-work benefits (7.4%) are claimed here than the average for London (8.4%, which compares to 6.4% nationally in April 2021) and among those aged 18 to 24 the percentage is 10.4% in the seat during theCOVID-19 pandemic.^[4] For the year 2020, 71.3% of employees fell into the top three occupation groups of nine assessed by government, which is above the London and national average.^[4] It has significant Jewish, Muslim and Cypriot communities.^{[n 1]}

In recent years^[when?], the south-eastern and southern wards of the constituency, including Bowes andPalmers Green have returnedLabourlocal councillors, with some councillors also in Southgate Green and Winchmore Hill. These wards tend to give the bulk of the Labour vote. The remaining wards generally elect Conservative councillors.^[5]

To the north, the seat is semi-rural taking inTrent Park and the former campus ofMiddlesex University, and theCockfosters terminus of thePiccadilly line, stretching into the wealthyHadley Wood area. Some areas (smaller than local government wards) in the south of the constituency have middle rankings of deprivation when placed in a complete list of wards (such as the 2000 Index of Multiple Deprivation), however all other output areas lack any significant deprivation.^[6]

Map of boundaries 2010–2024

1950–1974: TheMunicipal Borough of Southgate.

1974–1983: The London Borough of Enfield wards of Arnos, Bowes, Cockfosters, Grange, Highfield, Oakwood, Palmers Green, Southgate Green, West, and Winchmore Hill.

1983–2010: The London Borough of Enfield wards of Arnos, Bowes, Grange, Grovelands, Highfield, Merryhills, Oakwood, Palmers Green, Southgate Green, Trent, and Winchmore Hill.

2010–2024: The London Borough of Enfield wards of Bowes, Cockfosters, Grange, Palmers Green, Southgate, Southgate Green, and Winchmore Hill.

Pre-2010 form of the seat, at centre. (Results shown: 2001)

TheBoundary Commission for England recommended changes to the seat, which were approved and effective from 2010. Part of Highlands ward went toEnfield North; part of Grange ward came in reverse. Parts of Grange; Bowes; and Palmers Green wards were added to the seat fromEdmonton. Part of wards: Bush Hill Park and Upper Edmonton supplemented Edmonton.

• parliamentary constituencies in London

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "E" (part 2)

• Politics Resources (Election results from 1922 onwards)
• Electoral Calculus (Election results from 1955 onwards)
• Enfield, Southgate UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 1997 – April 2010) atMapIt UK
• Enfield, Southgate UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) atMapIt UK

51°38′49″N0°07′19″W / 51.647°N 0.122°W /51.647; -0.122

• Parliamentary constituencies in London (historic)
• Politics of the London Borough of Enfield
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1950
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1983
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 2024
• Southgate, London

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• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2022
• All articles with vague or ambiguous time
• Vague or ambiguous time from June 2021
• Wikipedia articles incorporating an LRPP-MP template with two unnamed parameters
• Coordinates on Wikidata
• Pages using the Kartographer extension