Harrow West is a
constituency
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...
in
Greater London
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*Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film
*Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record
*Greater (song), "Greate ...
created in 1945 and 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. ...
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 supremac ...
. Until
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
, it only returned
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
MPs; since then, it has elected the
Labour Co-operative
Labour and Co-operative Party (often abbreviated Labour Co-op; cy, Llafur a'r Blaid Gydweithredol) is a description used by candidates in United Kingdom elections who stand on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party.
Candidat ...
MP
Gareth Thomas on a fluctuating majority. Since
2010
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, this has been bolstered by the loss of
Pinner
Pinner is a London suburb in the London borough of Harrow, Greater London, England, northwest of Charing Cross, close to the border with Hillingdon, historically in the county of Middlesex. The population was 31,130 in 2011.
Originally a med ...
from the seat and the gain of a favourable ward for Labour from
Harrow East
Harrow East is a constituency in Greater London created in 1945 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Bob Blackman, a Conservative.
Constituency profile
The censuses of 2001 and 2011 show the overwhelmingl ...
.
Constituency profile
![Final Middlesex constituencies (1955-74)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Final_Middlesex_constituencies_%281955-74%29.svg)
The area covers the largely Georgian conservation area on a stand-alone, partly park-lined hill which hosts the famous
Harrow School
(The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God)
, established = (Royal Charter)
, closed =
, type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school
, religion = Church of E ...
; it also includes the urban Harrow town centre, as well as suburban streets of homes with good-sized gardens and well-kept small parklands. The seat has fast London Underground links to the city centre and rail services, few dual carriageways and few high speed roads.
Political history
;Summary of results
The
Labour Party have held the seat since 1997, with the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
second-placed in each election. The 2015 result made the seat the 215th safest of the party's 232 seats (by majority percentage), and thus the 18th most
marginal seat
A marginal seat or swing seat is a constituency held with a small majority in a legislative election, generally one conducted under a single-winner voting system. In Canada, they may be known as target ridings. The opposite is a safe seat. The ...
.
Thomas's majority has ranged from 2.3% in 1997 to 26.4% in 2017.
Unlike Harrow East, it had always been won by the Conservative Party until Labour's landslide in 1997, when a
swing of 17.5% was the eighth-highest swing in that election; it was the safest Tory seat lost to Labour.
Its electorate produced another better than average result for Labour in
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
, with a swing from the Conservatives to Labour of 5.4%, bettered in only four seats out of 650. The 2005 challenge by future Conservative MP
Mike Freer
Mike may refer to:
Animals
* Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum
* Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off
* Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...
produced a pro-Conservative swing of 4.5%.
The 2010 inceptive seat saw a notional swing to the Tories in line with that nationally of 5.7%; in overall outcome the incumbent Labour MP's swing increased. The Harrow West and East seats now present as less
marginal
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* ''Marginal'' (manga)
* '' El Marginal'', Argentine TV series
* Marginal seat or marginal constituency or marginal, in polit ...
than they were in previous decades.
After a 1.1% swing to the Tories in 2015, the seat swung to Labour in 2017 by around 11%, with a local record number of votes for their incumbent candidate. At 34.4%, the Conservative vote share was the lowest in the seat's history, but the party received more votes in 2017 than in 2001 and 2010.
;Other parties
UKIP
The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest pa ...
,
Liberal Democrat
Several political party, political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democracy, liberal democratic ideology.
Active parties
Former parties ...
and
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...
candidates won less than 5% of the vote in 2015 and 2017, therefore forfeiting their
deposits
A deposit account is a bank account maintained by a financial institution in which a customer can deposit and withdraw money. Deposit accounts can be savings accounts, Transaction account#Current accounts, current accounts or any of several othe ...
.
Boundaries
The constituency was created for the
1945 general election
The following elections occurred in the year 1945.
Africa
* 1945 South-West African legislative election
Asia
* 1945 Indian general election
Australia
* 1945 Fremantle by-election
Europe
* 1945 Albanian parliamentary election
* 1945 Bulgaria ...
when the
Harrow constituency was split into the new seats of
Harrow East
Harrow East is a constituency in Greater London created in 1945 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Bob Blackman, a Conservative.
Constituency profile
The censuses of 2001 and 2011 show the overwhelmingl ...
and Harrow West. It was reduced in size for the
1950 general election, when a third Harrow seat,
Harrow Central, was created. The Boundary Commission review before the
1983 general election saw the
London Borough of Harrow
The London Borough of Harrow () is a London borough in northwest London, England; it forms part of Outer London. It borders four other London boroughs Barnet to the east of ancient Watling Street (now the A5 road), Brent to the southeast, Ea ...
contained in two seats, resulting in Harrow West gaining parts of the abolished Harrow Central.
Labour's union leader
Tony McNulty
Anthony James "Tony" McNulty (born 3 November 1958) is a British politician who was the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Harrow East from 1997 to 2010. During his ministerial career, which began in 2003, he was Minister for London and late ...
lost the neighbouring
Harrow East
Harrow East is a constituency in Greater London created in 1945 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Bob Blackman, a Conservative.
Constituency profile
The censuses of 2001 and 2011 show the overwhelmingl ...
in
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
to Blackman, who held on in 2015 and 2017. However, Harrow West's Gareth Thomas retained his seat with a reduced majority.
2010 boundaries
Reviewing such representation in
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire.
The term ''nort ...
, the
Boundary Commission for England
The boundary commissions in the United Kingdom are non-departmental public bodies responsible for determining the boundaries of constituencies for elections to the House of Commons. There are four boundary commissions:
* Boundary Commission for E ...
(''
de facto
''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
''), as is custom agreed by Parliament, altered the area's limits to avoid
malapportionment
Apportionment is the process by which seats in a legislative body are distributed among administrative divisions, such as states or parties, entitled to representation. This page presents the general principles and issues related to apportionmen ...
, as London's housing and rates of occupancy have altered. The western border district, town or neighbourhood of
Pinner
Pinner is a London suburb in the London borough of Harrow, Greater London, England, northwest of Charing Cross, close to the border with Hillingdon, historically in the county of Middlesex. The population was 31,130 in 2011.
Originally a med ...
went to a new cross-Borough seat,
Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner
Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner is a constituency in Greater London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by David Simmonds, a Conservative.
History
Parliament accepted the Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Revi ...
, making its source, based on a ward breakdown of the last result, and mirrored by local election results, a stronger seat for Labour; this was coupled with the inclusion of Marlborough ward which had returned many Labour councillors since
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Members of Parliament
Election results
Elections in the 2010s
''Note: From 2010 historically Conservative-strong Pinner formed part of the new seat
Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner
Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner is a constituency in Greater London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by David Simmonds, a Conservative.
History
Parliament accepted the Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Revi ...
. The 2010 changes are not based on the 2005 result as the constituency underwent major changes.
Elections in the 2000s
Elections in the 1990s
Elections in the 1980s
Elections in the 1970s
Elections in the 1960s
Elections in the 1950s
Elections in the 1940s
See also
*
List of parliamentary constituencies in London
The region of Greater London, including the City of London, is divided into 73 parliamentary constituencies which are sub-classified as borough constituencies, affecting the type of electoral officer and level of expenses permitted.
Constituencie ...
Notes
References
External links
Politics Resources(Election results from 1922 onwards)
(Election results from 1955 onwards)
{{Coord, 51.585, -0.364, type:city_region:GB-HRW, display=title
Parliamentary constituencies in London
Politics of the London Borough of Harrow
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1945