West Ham (UK Parliament constituency)

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West Ham
Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
Outline map
Boundary of West Ham in Greater London.
County Greater London
Electorate 86,400 (December 2010)[1]
Major settlements West Ham, Forest Gate, Plaistow, Stratford, Maryland and Upton Park
Current constituency
Created 1997
Member of parliament Lyn Brown (Labour)
Number of members One
Created from Newham North West, Newham South
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency London

West Ham is a constituency[n 1] represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Lyn Brown, a member of the Labour Party.[n 2]

Boundaries

1997-2010: The London Borough of Newham wards of Bemersyde, Forest Gate, Hudsons, New Town, Park, Plaistow, Plashet, Stratford, Upton, and West Ham.

2010-present: The London Borough of Newham wards of Canning Town North, Canning Town South, Custom House, Forest Gate North, Forest Gate South, Green Street West, Plaistow North, Plaistow South, Stratford and New Town, and West Ham.

The constituency covers the western half of Newham stretching from the Thames just east of Canary Wharf to Stratford.

The boundary changes that took effect at the May 2010 election expanded the constituency by adding Canning Town from the Poplar and Canning Town constituency, whilst losing Silvertown to East Ham. The boundary with the East Ham constituency was modified to align with local government ward boundaries.[2]

History

The seat was created in 1997 by the fourth periodic review (following the first such review in 1945), undertaken by the Boundary Commission, from portions of the Newham North West and Newham South seats.

Political history

The area's elections to date, including both forerunner seats have returned safe majorities for the Labour Party since the last Conservatives for smaller, denser divisions from 1931-1935;[n 3] going back further West Ham South had in 1892 sent Keir Hardie to the Commons who co-founded the party.

Banks held this seat at the 2001 general election with nearly 70% of the vote and a local record majority of 53.5% of the vote.

The 2010 result, not only on the notional result, accommodating boundary changes, but also on predecessor-successor seat analysis shows that the main beneficiary of the runner-up Respect vote, as they did not have a candidate in that year, was the Labour candidate.

Prominent frontbenchers

The first member Tony Banks served the main predecessor seat, Newham North West from 1983 until his retirement in 2005, and was Minister for Sport (1997-1999).

Constituency profile

Helped by proximity to the City of London and exporting businesses in areas such as Hackney, Shoreditch and the Thames Gateway, the area is only gradually recovering in terms of employment rates from the deep East End decline, particularly decline of the dockers' industry here of the 1950s to the 1980s, with an immediate boost on the 2010 creation of the London Olympic Village and Park. Workless claimants who were registered jobseekers were in November 2012 significantly higher than the national average of 3.8%, at 7.7% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian but not the highest in London. Within this figure is a skew toward male unemployment which was at 9.8%[3]

The constituency has been one of the fastest growing in the 21st century - in 2006 it was the second largest constituency of all, with only the Isle of Wight having more voters. The neighbouring constituency of East Ham was the third largest constituency.[4]

While the Olympic stadium is expect to become West Ham United's home in the future, their current ground at Upton Park is actually in the neighbouring East Ham seat.

Distinctive demographics

By the time of the 2001 census,[n 4] people who identified with the ethnicity of white made up 44.1% of the population and 35.3% of residents were born outside the UK, and in the 2011 census the borough saw an increase in those of mixed colour ethnicity, at 4.6% and saw the lowest proportion of people of solely white ethnicity at 29.0%, the figure for those of black ethnicity had fallen to 19.6%, and those of South Asian ethnicity had risen to 43.5% of the population.[6][7]

In terms of religion the British Asian population is more than 50% Muslim in this constituency. By the time of the 2005 General Election, only seven of the 646 constituencies had more Muslims than West Ham.[8] Respect (later led by Salma Yaqoob fielded a candidate for the 2005 election, hoping to benefit from opposition to the Iraq war; in the end this was not enough to unseat Labour's replacement for Banks, Lyn Brown, but Respect managed to take nearly 20% of the vote.[8]

Members of Parliament

Election Member[9] Party
1997 Tony Banks Labour
2005 Lyn Brown Labour

Election results

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2015: West Ham [10]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Lyn Brown 36,132 68.4 +5.8
Conservative Festus Akinbusoye 8,146 15.4 +0.8
UKIP Jamie Ross McKenzie[11] 3,950 7.5 +5.9
Green Rachel Collinson[12] 2,651 5.0 +3.6
Liberal Democrat Paul Reynolds[13] 1,430 2.7 -8.8
Christian Peoples Andy Uzoka 369 0.7 -2.1
Communities United Cydatty Bogie 115 0.2 +0.2
Majority 27,986 53.0 +5.0
Turnout 52,793 58.2 +3.2
Labour hold Swing +2.5

The Green Party originally selected Jane Lithgow as candidate.[14]

General Election 2010: West Ham
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Lyn Brown 29,422 62.7 +10.9[n 5]
Conservative Virginia Morris 6,888 14.7 +2.6
Liberal Democrat Martin Pierce 5,392 11.5 +1.3
Christian Peoples Stan Gain 1,327 2.8 +1.7
Independent Kamran Malik 1,245 2.7 N/A
National Front Michael Davidson 1,089 2.3 N/A
UKIP Kim Gandy 766 1.6 +0.6
Green Jane A. Lithgow 645 1.4 −1.6
Independent Grace Agbogun-Toko 177 0.4 N/A
Majority 22,534 48.0
Turnout 46,951 55.0 +10.2
Labour hold Swing +4.2

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: West Ham
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Lyn Brown 15,840 51.2 −18.7
Respect Lindsey German 6,039 19.5 N/A
Conservative Chris L. Whitbread 3,618 11.7 −4.7
Liberal Democrat Mrs. Alexandra E. Sugden 3,364 10.9 +3.5
Green Miss Jane A. Lithgow 894 2.9 −1.2
Christian Peoples Stephen C. Hammond 437 1.4 N/A
UKIP Henry E.B. Mayhew 409 1.3 −0.9
Veritas Generoso Alcantara 365 1.2 N/A
Majority 9,801 31.7
Turnout 30,966 49.8 +0.9
Labour hold Swing N/A
General Election 2001: West Ham
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Tony Banks 20,449 69.9 −3.0
Conservative Syed Kamall 4,804 16.4 +1.4
Liberal Democrat Paul J. Fox 2,166 7.4 +0.0
Green Mrs. Jackie M. Chandler-Oatts 1,197 4.1 N/A
UKIP Gerard Batten 657 2.2 N/A
Majority 15,645 53.5 −4.4
Turnout 29,273 48.9 −9.5
Labour hold Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: West Ham
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Tony Banks 24,531 72.9 N/A
Conservative Mark C. McGregor 5,037 15.0 N/A
Liberal Democrat Miss Samantha L.C. McDonough 2,479 7.4 N/A
BNP Kenneth Francis 1,198 3.6 N/A
Monster Raving Loony Toby Jug 300 0.9 N/A
Rainbow Dream Ticket Jonathan P. Rainbow 116 0.3 N/A
Majority 14,494 57.9 N/A
Turnout 33,361 58.5 N/A
Labour win (new seat)

See also

Notes and references

Notes
  1. ↑ A borough constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
  2. ↑ As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years.
  3. ↑ Upton and West Ham South
  4. ↑ In the 1991 census just over 43% of residents were non-white.[5]
  5. ↑ Percentages are notional (based on extrapolation from combining two whole constituency results overlaid onto the redrawn constituency), with the Canning Town vote therefore deemed to be slightly stronger towards Labour rather than the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties than in the non-identical seat in 2005.
References
  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2010 post-revision map Greater London and metropolitan areas of England
  3. ↑ Unemployment claimants by constituency The Guardian
  4. ↑ Boundary Commission for England, p183
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 2011 census interactive maps
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 2)[self-published source][better source needed]
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ https://my.greenparty.org.uk/candidates?display_name=West+Ham&display_name_1=&display_name_2=All&relationship_type=All
  13. ↑ http://www.libdems.org.uk/general_election_candidates#London
  14. ↑ https://yournextmp.com/person/452/jane-lithgow

External links

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