Ilford South 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 (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

created in 1945 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 suprem ...

since 2019 by

Sam Tarry Samuel Peter Tarry (; born 27 August 1982) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ilford South since 2019. He is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group parliamentary caucus. On 11 October 2022 he was deselect ...

of the Labour Party.

Constituency profile

The seat covers Ilford town centre and the surrounding suburbs, and the housing is predominantly semi-detached with little high-rise development. There is significant commuting to central London via the four stations on the

Elizabeth line The Elizabeth line is a high-frequency hybrid urban–suburban rail service in London and its suburbs. It runs services on dedicated infrastructure in central London from the Great Western Main Line west of Paddington to and via Whitechapel ...

. The seat is ethnically diverse including white, black and Asian communities.

Political history

This constituency was created in 1945. The previous MP since 1992,

Mike Gapes Michael John Gapes (born 4 September 1952) is a British former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Ilford South from 1992 to 2019. Born in Wanstead Hospital, Gapes attended Buckhurst Hill County High School. He studied ec ...

, who before defecting to

Change UK The Independent Group for Change, also known as Change UK, was a British centrist, pro-European Union political party, founded in February 2019 and dissolved ten months later, shortly after all its MPs lost their seats in the 2019 general e ...

, was the fourth Labour Party MP, each of whose tenures was interspersed or preceded by one of a

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 in ...

MP serving the area. Despite its record of MPs elected, under Gapes's tenure Ilford South became a very

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district (constituency) in a legislative body (e.g. Congress, Parliament, City Council) which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combina ...

for the Labour Party; in every election since 1997 it has been won by a majority of over 20% by Labour, and in 2017 they secured over 75% of the vote in the constituency. The 2015 result made the seat the 38th safest of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority. The narrowest result since 1997 (inclusive) was in 2005 at a majority of 21.6%; the 2017 majority is the greatest ever achieved in the seat, at 54.9%.

Boundaries

1945–1950: The Municipal Borough of Ilford wards of Clementswood, Cranbrook, Goodmayes, Loxford, and Park. 1950–1974: The Municipal Borough of Ilford wards of Clementswood, Cranbrook, Goodmayes, Loxford, Mayfield, and Park. 1974–1983: The London Borough of Redbridge wards of Clementswood, Cranbrook, Goodmayes, Ilford, Mayfield, and Park. 1983–1997: As above substituting Ilford and Park with reshaped wards Loxford, Newbury, and Valentines. 1997–present: As above plus Chadwell and Seven Kings wards.

Members of Parliament

Election results

Elections in the 2010s

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

Notes

References

External links

Politics Resources
(Election results from 1922 onwards)

(Election results from 1955 onwards) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ilford South (Uk Parliament Constituency) Politics of the London Borough of Redbridge Parliamentary constituencies in London Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1945 Ilford