Dagenham and Rainham (UK Parliament constituency)

Dagenham and Rainham
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Dagenham and Rainham in Greater London.
County	Greater London
Electorate	70,187 (December 2010)[1]
Current constituency
Created	2010
Member of parliament	Jon Cruddas (Labour)
Number of members	One
Created from	Dagenham, Hornchurch, Barking
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	London

Dagenham and Rainham is a constituency^{[n 1]} represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 2010 creation by Jon Cruddas of the Labour Party.^{[n 2]}

Boundaries

The cross-border constituency of Dagenham and Rainham has electoral wards:

• Chadwell Heath (not to be confused with the Chadwell ward in neighbouring Redbridge), Eastbrook, Heath, River, Village, Whalebone in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
• Elm Park, Rainham and Wennington, South Hornchurch in the London Borough of Havering

History

Before 1945 the Dagenham area was part of the Romford constituency. The MP for the latter seat since 1935, Labour's John Parker, continued to represent Dagenham until 1983. Parker was the last serving MP to have been elected before the Second World War, and with 48 years in Parliament, remains the longest-serving Labour MP in history. The seat was first contested in the 2010 general election which resulted from the Boundary Commission's report that recommended merging the majority of the former constituencies of Dagenham and Hornchurch and added to existing electoral wards a small part of River ward was also transferred from Barking.

In 2010 Labour's Jon Cruddas took the seat despite a strong Lab–Con swing. BNP candidate Michael Barnbrook came third with 11.2% of the vote, his party's second-best showing in the 2010 election.

Constituency profile

The constituency may retain significant pockets of poverty indicated by a high ranking in the Index of Multiple Deprivation compiled in the year 2000 however average incomes were in four large wards close to the national average.^[2] The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham saw the most rapid decrease in people of White British ethnicity in the 10 years to the 2011 census, of 31.4 percentage points. However the same dataset shows that 58.3% of people are white in the seat, which is similar to the Greater London average. An established area of settlement for British people of Asian ethnicity with 15.9% of this background, the neighbouring London Borough of Newham has a much higher proportion of residents with Asian heritage, 43.5%.^[3]

Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 higher than the national average of 3.8%, at 5.5% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.^[4]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member [5]	Party
	2010	Jon Cruddas	Labour

Election results

General Election 2015: Dagenham and Rainham[6][7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Jon Cruddas	17,830	41.4	+1.1
	UKIP	Peter Harris	12,850	29.8	+26.3
	Conservative	Julie Marson	10,492	24.4	-10.0
	Green	Kate Simpson[8]	806	1.9	+1.2
	Liberal Democrat	Denise Capstick[9][10]	717	1.7	-6.9
	BNP	Tess Culnane	151	0.4	-10.8
	Independent	Terry London	133	0.3	+0.3
	English Democrats	Kim Gandy	71	0.2	+0.2
Majority			4,980	11.6	+5.7
Turnout			43,050	62.3	-0.9
	Labour hold		Swing	-12.6

The English Democrat candidate Kim Gandy was previously announced as standing in Castle Point.

General Election 2010: Dagenham & Rainham[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Jon Cruddas*	17,813	40.3	-8.9
	Conservative	Simon Jones	15,183	34.3	+0.9
	BNP	Michael Barnbrook	4,952	11.2
	Liberal Democrat	Joseph Bourke	3,806	8.6	-0.4
	UKIP	Craig Litwin	1,569	3.5	-0.4
	Independent	Gordon Kennedy[12]	308	0.7
	Christian	Paula Watson[13]	305	0.7
	Green	Debbie Rosaman	296	0.7
Majority			2,630	5.9
Turnout			44,232	63.4
	Labour gain, as new

* Served as MP for Dagenham in the 2005–2010 Parliament

The seat was contested for the first time in 2010, so percentage changes are based on notional results of the 2005 election.

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London

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.

References

1. "Electorate Figures - Boundary Commission for England". 2011 Electorate Figures. Boundary Commission for England. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
2. 2001 Census River, Eastbrook, Whalebone and Heath wards
3. "Forest Heath (East of England) was the only local authority to see an increase in White British between 2001 and 2011 (by 0.8 percentage points). The proportion of White British decreased in the remaining local authorities in England and Wales, with the largest decrease in Barking and Dagenham at 31.4 percentage points." 2011 Census statistics
4. Unemployment claimants by constituency The Guardian
5. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 1)
6. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
7. https://www.lbbd.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Declaration-of-results-Dagenham-and-Rainham-constituency.pdf
8. http://london.greenparty.org.uk/elections/2015-general-election.html
9. http://www.libdems.org.uk/list_of_selected_candidates
10. http://www.libdems.org.uk/denise_capstick
11. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
12. Gordon Kennedy. "Just Vote Them Out". Retrieved 2010-04-08.
13. "Dagenham and Rainham". Christian Party. Retrieved 8 April 2010.

Coordinates: 51°32′N 0°10′E / 51.53°N 0.17°E