West Ham (UK Parliament constituency)

West Ham
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
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 for the 2010 general election expanded the constituency by adding Canning Town from the abolished Poplar and Canning Town constituency, whilst losing Silvertown to the redrawn 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

• 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.
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. "Electorate Figures - Boundary Commission for England". 2011 Electorate Figures. Boundary Commission for England. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
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. "West Ham profile, BBC Vote 2001, accessed 25 January 2010". BBC News. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
6. 2011 census interactive maps
7. "UK polling report". UK polling report. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
8. Casciani, Dominic (2005-05-06). "Muslim vote shifts against Labour, BBC Vote 2005". BBC News. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
9. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 2)
10. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
11. "UKIP Election Leaflet". 25 April 2015. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
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

• BBC Election 2005: West Ham

Coordinates: 51°32′24″N 0°00′47″E / 51.540°N 0.013°E