1885–1918: The Municipal Borough of Sheffield wards of St Peter's and St Philip's, and part of St George's ward.
1918–1950: The County Borough of Sheffield wards of St Peter's and St Philip's, and part of Broomhall ward.
1950-1983: See other seats.
Second creation (current)
Map of 2010–2024 boundaries
1983–1997: The City of Sheffield wards of Burngreave, Castle, Manor, Netherthorpe, and Sharrow.
1997–2010: as above plus Nether Edge
Sheffield City Council was subject to new ward boundaries from 2004, which removed Castle, Manor, Netherthorpe and Sharrow, whilst adding Central and Manor Castle wards.
2010–2016: The City of Sheffield wards of Broomhill, Central, Manor Castle, Nether Edge, and Walkley(as they existed on 12 April 2005).
2016–2024: Following a local government boundary review,[3] which did not effect the parliamentary boundaries, the contents of the constituency were as follows with effect from May 2016:
The City of Sheffield wards of Broomhill & Sharrow Vale, City, Manor Castle, Nether Edge & Sharrow, and Walkley; and parts of the wards of Crookes & Crosspool, Ecclesall, Fulwood and Hillsborough.
The City of Sheffield wards of: Broomhill & Sharrow Vale; City; Nether Edge & Sharrow; and Walkley.[4]
The Manor Castle ward was transferred toSheffield Heeley, bringing the electorate within the permitted range. Other minor losses to align with new ward boundaries.
In varied form the constituency was brought back into existence for the1983 general election.
MPs
Labour'sRichard Caborn represented Sheffield Central from its recreation in 1983 until he retired in 2010 and was narrowly succeeded at the ballot box by another Labour MP,Paul Blomfield. Blomfield retired for the2024 general election, with the Labour Party selecting Sheffield city councillorAbtisam Mohamed to fight the seat, beatingEddie Izzard in the selection contest.[5][6]Mohamed was duly elected with a much reduced, but still comfortable majority.
Winning margin
The 2015 result made the seat the 32nd-safest of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority.[7]
Labour majorities since 1983 in Sheffield Central have been in the top quartile save for 2010, when theLiberal Democrat share of the vote came 0.4% short of winning the seat — a highlymarginal result.
Opposition parties
TheGreen Party took second place in 2015, gaining a +12.1% swing (compared with +2.8% nationwide). This was the main target seat of the party in Yorkshire. Its 2012-2016 LeaderNatalie Bennett, chose to settle locally on stepping down from the policy-steering role in 2016 and had chosen to contest Sheffield Central at the2017 general election, when its vote share halved and they fell back to third place. The Green candidate at the 2024 general election regained second place with 26% of the vote. Lib Dem candidates scored variable second places in 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2010 then took fourth place in 2015.
Turnout
Turnout has ranged from 62.5% in 1987 to 49.5% in 2001.
The constituency has a working population whose income is close to the national average and lower than average reliance uponsocial housing.[8] At the end of 2012 the unemployment rate in the constituency stood as 4.0% of the population claiming jobseekers allowance, see table.[9]
There is a large student population and in 2015, the constituency had the youngest median age of voters at 26 years, compared to 39 years for the UK.[10]
The district contributing to the bulk of the seat has a medium 33% of its population without a car.[n 2] A medium 24.3% of the city's population are without qualifications, a high 15.8% of the population with level 3 qualifications and a medium 25.7% with level 4 qualifications or above. In terms of tenure a relatively low 58.3% of homes are owned outright or on a mortgage by occupants as at the 2011 census across the district.[11]
^abcdefghCraig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969].British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services.ISBN0-900178-06-X.
