East Ham is a
constituency in the
London Borough of Newham represented in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
of the
UK Parliament
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
since its creation in 1997 by
Stephen Timms of the
Labour Party.
History
;Predecessor seats and constituent wards
The seat was formed in 1997 when
Newham North East and part of
Newham South were replaced by the seat.
East Ham's wards have long been Labour
strongholds
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
.
Ron Leighton
Ronald Leighton (24 January 1930 – 28 February 1994) was a British Labour Party politician.
Political career
Leighton contested Middleton and Prestwich at the 1964 general election, but was beaten by the Conservative incumbent Sir John Ba ...
(Lab) was MP for the old
Newham North East from 1979 until his death in 1994.
;Summary of results
Stephen Timms (Lab) has represented the seat since its creation in 1997. At the
2010 general election, Timms received the most votes of any MP (35,471) and largest majority (27,826) of any MP. The seat has the second-highest numerical majority and fourth-highest percentage of majority in the country, behind other staunch Labour "
safe seats" in
Merseyside
Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...
.
Every component ward has only Labour councillors (resulting from
local elections) and the party's general election candidate has achieved an
absolute majority
A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority r ...
in the five elections since creation, against a wide assortment of
political parties.
The
RESPECT Coalition
The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left, socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons and nineteen ...
stood a candidate once, hoping to benefit from opposition to the
Iraq war
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, partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror
, image ...
in the
2005 general election which saw elsewhere their first MP, and took second place.
Constituency profile
Just north of the River Thames is the seat of East Ham. The constituency contains the King George V and the Royal Albert Docks, and
London City Airport
London City Airport is a regional airport in London, England. It is located in the Royal Docks in the Borough of Newham, approximately east of the City of London and east of Canary Wharf. These are the twin centres of London's financial ...
.
The area benefits from the Thames Gateway regeneration of the London Riverside area. The Silvertown Quays redevelopment will create an innovative quarter and an estimated 21,000 jobs.
Three quarters of the population are non-white; over a third are Muslim and more than half are Asian - the fourth highest proportion of any constituency in England and Wales, according to ONS 2011 Census figures. There is also a large black population.
Unemployment is significantly higher than the national average of 3.5%. In the constituency 9.9% of people are unemployed.
At the 2018, 2014 and 2010 council elections, Labour won all of the seats in the constituency. One of the safest Labour seats in the country, Stephen Timms has been MP since 1994.
Boundaries
1997–2010: The London Borough of Newham wards of Castle, Central, Greatfield, Kensington, Little Ilford, Manor Park, Monega, St Stephen's, South, and Wall End.
2010–present: The London Borough of Newham wards of Beckton, Boleyn, East Ham Central, East Ham North, East Ham South, Green Street East, Little Ilford, Manor Park, Royal Docks, and Wall End.
The constituency covers the eastern half of Newham, including
East Ham,
Beckton
Beckton is a suburb in east London, England, located east of Charing Cross and part of the London Borough of Newham. Adjacent to the River Thames, the area consisted of unpopulated marshland known as the East Ham Levels in the parishes of Barki ...
,
Little Ilford
Little Ilford is a district of London, England in the London Borough of Newham and the name of a ward in that borough.
Little Ilford is now usually referred to as Manor Park.'Little Ilford', in A History of the County of Essex: Volume 6, ed. W ...
and
Manor Park.
Members of Parliament
Election results
Elections in the 2010s
This was the largest numerical majority of any seat in the 2010 general election.
Elections in the 2000s
Elections in the 1990s
See also
*
List of parliamentary constituencies in London
Notes
References
External links
Politics Resources(Election results from 1922 onwards)
(Election results from 1955 onwards)
{{DEFAULTSORT:East Ham (Uk Parliament Constituency)
Politics of the London Borough of Newham
Parliamentary constituencies in London
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1997
East Ham