South West Devon is a constituency most recently represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament from 1997 to 2024, by Sir Gary Streeter, a Conservative. Plymstock Radford Councillor Rebecca Smith retained the seat for the Conservatives in the 4 July 2024 general election after Sir Gary Streeter didn't stand for re-election.

Boundaries

1997–2010: The District of South Hams wards of Bickleigh and Shaugh, Brixton, Charterlands, Cornwood and Harford, Erme Valley, Ivybridge, Modbury, Newton and Noss, Sparkwell, Ugborough, Wembury, and Yealmpton, the City of Plymouth wards of Plympton Erle, Plympton St Mary, Plymstock Dunstone, and Plymstock Radford, and the Borough of West Devon ward of Buckland Monachorum. 2010–2024: The District of South Hams wards of Bickleigh and Shaugh, Charterlands, Cornwood and Sparkwell, Erme Valley, Ivybridge Central, Ivybridge Filham, Ivybridge Woodlands, Newton and Noss, Wembury and Brixton, and Yealmpton, and the City of Plymouth wards of Plympton Chaddlewood, Plympton Erle, Plympton St Mary, Plymstock Dunstone, and Plymstock Radford. The constituency is a south-western portion of Devon and includes the easternmost part of the city of Plymouth, namely the suburban small towns of Plympton (which as the borough constituency of Plympton Erle returned its own MPs until the Reform Act of 1832 abolished the seat as a 'rotten borough') and Plymstock which are so close as to be contiguous with the city's eastern parts, as well as the town of Ivybridge and much of the South Hams. Its landscape includes the edge of Dartmoor and a southern coastline. 2024-present: Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, enacted by the Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023, from the 2024 United Kingdom general election, the constituency will be composed of the following (as they existed on 1 December 2020): Minor changes including the gain of the two West Devon Borough wards from Torridge and West Devon and the loss of the Charterlands ward in the east to the newly named constituency of South Devon.

History

The areas covered in the seat were previously served by the South Hams and Plymouth Sutton seats. Both seats had been represented by the Conservative Party, and Gary Streeter, who became the first MP for the new constituency in 1997, had been MP for Plymouth Sutton from 1992 until 1997.

Constituency profile

Unemployment, at 1.3% in November 2012, was significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s