Tottenham () is a constituency in Greater London 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

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since

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

by David Lammy of the Labour Party. Lammy has served as

Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs In UK politics, the Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs is a position within the opposition's shadow cabinet that deals mainly with issues surrounding the Foreign Office. If elected, the person serving a ...

since 2021 in the

Shadow Cabinet of Keir Starmer Keir Starmer became Leader of the Opposition in the United Kingdom after being elected as Leader of the Labour Party on 4 April 2020. He appointed his Shadow Cabinet on 5 and 6 April. Background Following the Labour Party's defeat in th ...

, in which he previously served as

Shadow Secretary of State for Justice In British politics the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice is the member of the Shadow Cabinet who shadows the Secretary of State for Justice The secretary of state for justice, also referred to as the justice secretary, is a secretary ...

and Shadow Lord Chancellor from 2020 to 2021. Tottenham was re-created as a parliamentary constituency in 1950, having previously existed from 1885 to 1918.

Boundaries

1885–1918: The parish of Tottenham (and the area included in the Parliamentary Boroughs of Bethnal Green, Hackney, Shoreditch, and Tower Hamlets; for many wealthy voters this sub-provision gave a choice of which seat to vote for). 1918–1950: The Tottenham area was represented by the Tottenham North and Tottenham South parliamentary constituencies. 1950–1974: The Borough of Tottenham wards of Bruce Grove and Stoneleigh, Chestnuts, Green Lanes, Stamford Hill, Town Hall, and West Green. 1974–1983: The Borough of Haringey wards of Bruce Grove, Green Lanes, High Cross, Seven Sisters, South Tottenham, Tottenham Central, and West Green. 1983–2010: As above plus Coleraine, Harringay, Park, and White Hart Lane. 2010–present: Bruce Grove, Harringay, Northumberland Park, St Ann's, Seven Sisters, Tottenham Green, Tottenham Hale, West Green, White Hart Lane. From 2018 (proposed): As above plus Stroud Green. The constituency is in the

London Borough of Haringey The London Borough of Haringey (pronounced , same as Harringay) is a London borough in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner London, and by others as part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 by the amalgamation o ...

in north London, covering the borough's central and eastern area.

History

1885 to 1918

The seat, aided by the choice to wealthy voters owning property in the eastern metropolitan divisions to the south of exercising "the county franchise" (see definition above) sided with the Conservative party candidate until the January-to-February-held 1906 election, a party noted for the gradual social reforms of Benjamin Disraeli in the early 1880s, particularly in education and urban deprivation. By the time of the 1906 United Kingdom general election the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

was at its final apex and stood on the moral high ground on issues of free trade and abhorrences in the

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

which turned the seat in the ''Liberal landslide'' result of that year to the party's candidate. The two elections in 1910 (before a near eight-year long hiatus in elections due to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

) were one-member parliamentary majority results nationally between the two then-dominant parties but the Liberal Party's People's Budget proposed at the first 1910 election saw Liberal incumbent Alden narrowly returned to serve Tottenham and again at the end of the year.

Since 1950

This constituency was recreated to cover a narrower, more focussed seat on the largest town or London District itself, of

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Wal ...

. Parts of two wards were in the former Borough of Hornsey which had a seat, abolished in 1983 to make way for Hornsey and Wood Green. ;Political history During its modern period of existence, Tottenham has been won consistently by the Labour Party; however, one member in the early 1960s, Alan Brown, defected to become independent in opposition and then,

crossing the floor In parliamentary systems, politicians are said to cross the floor if they formally change their political affiliation to a different political party than which they were initially elected under (as is the case in Canada and the United Kingdom). ...

, became 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 ...

. Brown failed by a wide margin to win re-election in 1964. The closest result since 1950 was in 1987 when the Labour Party candidate

Bernie Grant Bernard Alexander Montgomery Grant (17 February 1944 – 8 April 2000) was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Tottenham, London, from 1987 to his death in 2000. Biography Bernie Grant was born in Georgetown ...

retained the seat by 8.2% of the vote ahead of the Conservatives. The first by-election to Tottenham occurred in

due to Grant's death, which saw Labour, with new candidate David Lammy, retain the seat with a reduced majority. In 2005 and 2010 – reflecting a national swing – the runner-up was a

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties See also *Liberal democracy *Lib ...

candidate. The re-election of Lammy in 2015 made the seat the twelfth-safest of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority; and third-safest in London. In

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

, Lammy was re-elected with 81.6% of the vote and a 70.1% majority, making Tottenham the safest seat for any party in Greater London. At the 2016 EU referendum on continuing British membership of the European Union, 76.2% of the constituency voted to remain. ;Prominent frontbenchers David Lammy was the

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In ...

for Higher Education and Intellectual Property from 2008 until Labour's defeat in the 2010 general election. Lammy served on the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Justice Secretary and Shadow Lord Chancellor from 2020 until 2021, when he was reshuffled to serve as

Constituency profile

A cosmopolitan, inner-city seat in the London Borough of Haringey, Tottenham has a large ethnic minority population – around a fifth of the residents are black, and there is a large Muslim population. Excluding the south of the constituency, the percentage of white residents understates the ethnic variety of this constituency, similar to the borough as a whole which includes major Cypriot, Irish, Eastern European, Jewish and Russian communities. The seat includes the two Haringey metropolitan centresThe London Borough of Haringey says its "Metropolitan Centres serve wide catchments areas and can cover several boroughs. Typically they contain at least 100,000sq.m of retail floorspace with a significant proportion of high-order comparison goods relative to convenience goods. These centres generally have very good accessibility and significant employment, leisure, service and civic functions", London Borough of Haringey's Local Plan, Site Allocations DPD, July 2017 of

Harringay Harringay (pronounced ) is a district of north London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is centred on the section of Green Lanes running between the New River, where it crosses Green Lanes by Finsbury Park, and Duckett' ...

and

. London football club Tottenham Hotspur F.C. is also based in the constituency. The seat includes the district of

. The constituency also includes the

Broadwater Farm Broadwater Farm, often referred to simply as "The Farm", is an area in Tottenham, North London, straddling the River Moselle. The eastern half of the area is dominated by the Broadwater Farm Estate ("BWFE"), an experiment in high-density social ...

estate which was notorious for the 1985 riots, following which the estate underwent a massive facelift and is no longer a crime blackspot, and Northumberland Park which is blighted by social problems, including overcrowding. In the east of the area is the River Lea with its valley trail and the Tottenham marshes, while to the south the seat takes in

Finsbury Park Finsbury Park is a public park in the London neighbourhood of Harringay. It is in the area formerly covered by the historic parish of Hornsey, succeeded by the Municipal Borough of Hornsey. It was one of the first of the great London parks ...

Members of Parliament

MPs 1885–1918

MPs 1950–present

Elections

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 1910s

Elections in the 1900s

Elections in the 1890s

Elections in the 1880s

Notes

References

External links

Politics Resources
(Election results from 1922 onwards)

(Election results from 1955 onwards) {{DEFAULTSORT:Tottenham (Uk Parliament Constituency) Parliamentary constituencies in London Politics of the London Borough of Haringey Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1885 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1918 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1950 Tottenham