1918–1950: The County Borough of Birmingham wards of Ladywood and Rotton Park.
1950–1955: The County Borough of Birmingham wards of All Saints', Ladywood, and Rotton Park.
1955–1974: The County Borough of Birmingham wards of Duddeston, Ladywood, and St Paul's.[3]
1974–1983: The County Borough of Birmingham wards of All Saints', Ladywood, Rotton Park, and Soho.
1983–1997: The City of Birmingham wards of Ladywood, Sandwell, and Soho.
1997–2010: The City of Birmingham wards of Aston, Ladywood, Nechells, and Soho.
2010–2024: As 1997 but with redrawn boundaries.
2024–present: The City of Birmingham wards of Alum Rock; Balsall Heath West; Bordesley & Highgate; Bordesley Green; Ladywood; Nechells; Newtown; Soho & Jewellery Quarter.[4]
After adjusting the boundaries to take into account the revised ward structure in the City of Birmingham with effect from May 2018,[5] the Aston ward was transferred to Birmingham Perry Barr and the North Edgbaston ward to Birmingham Edgbaston, offset by the gain of the Balsall Heath West ward from Birmingham Hall Green and the Alum Rock ward from Birmingham Hodge Hill.
Birmingham Ladywood includes Birmingham City Centre along with the areas of Aston, Ladywood, Nechells and Soho. The area is one of the most multicultural in Birmingham and the whole of the United Kingdom; in the 1991 census, 55.6% of the constituency population were ethnic minorities, the highest in England at the time.[6] In the recession of 2008–09, it was the first place in the UK where the unemployment claimant count rate exceeded 10%, breaching that level in January 2009. In July 2008, Ladywood had the highest unemployment rate in the whole of the West Midlands (by the international standardised measure, which is usually higher than the claimant count) at just over 18%, compared with neighbouring Birmingham seats Perry Barr (8.1%), Sparkbrook and Small Heath (13.9%), and Yardley (7%).[7][8] For the year ending September 2014, the unemployment rate was 12.4%,[9] although the employment rate had increased only slightly, from 46.1% to 46.6% (compared with 69.7% for the West Midlands as a whole).[10]
The average house price in Ladywood is just under £155,000; making it much lower than the national average of just over £288,000.[11]
The first campaign for this constituency in 1918 was notable because the Liberal Party candidate was Mrs Margery Corbett Ashby, one of only seventeen women candidates to contest a parliamentary election at the first opportunity. Chamberlain reacted to this intervention by being one of the few male candidates to specifically target women voters; deploying his wife, issuing a special leaflet headed "A word to the Ladies" and holding two meetings in the afternoon.[14]
Clare Short, elected as a Labour MP from the 1983 general election onwards, resigned the Labour whip on 20 October 2006 and wished it to be known that she would continue to sit in the Commons as an independent MP.
^"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived(PDF) from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^"Unemployment in graphics". BBC News. Recession tracker. 18 March 2009. Archived from the original on 14 February 2009. Retrieved 24 March 2009.
^"Constituency Profile". nomis official labour market statistics. Source: Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 31 January 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015.