Croydon Central (UK Parliament constituency)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Croydon Central Borough constituency |
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| Croydon Central shown within Greater London | |
| Created: | 1974 |
| MP: | Andrew Pelling |
| Party: | Conservative |
| Type: | House of Commons |
| County: | Greater London |
| EP constituency: | London |
Croydon Central is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The current MP is Conservative Andrew Pelling, who won by just 75 votes, making Croydon Central the most marginal Conservative seat in the country.
It was created for the 1997 general election from most of the old Croydon Central (losing Waddon to the new Croydon South) and part of the old Croydon North East constituencies. It covers an area known as Croydon South constituency until 1974 when part of East Surrey was incorporated into the London Borough of Croydon, creating a new Croydon South constituency.
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[edit] Boundaries
Croydon Central covers a wedge of the London Borough of Croydon to the east of central Croydon. The northern parts are characterised by terraced houses and urban areas, with small council estates. Labour gains much of its strength from these ethnically-mixed wards of Addiscombe and Woodside, and similar parts of Fairfield and Ashburton. The southern area, largely Conservative, consists of suburban semi-detached houses, populated by commuters, surrounded by golf courses and parkland. The wards of Shirley, Heathfield and parts of Ashburton give large Conservative votes. In the south east corner, there is a large former council estate, New Addington, with two electoral wards for the more than 10,000 rather isolated residents. The estate is largely white and there have been strong British National Party showings, although Labour has traditionally won the bulk of the votes on the estate.
Croydon Central is bordered by Croydon North and Croydon South, as well as the Beckenham constituency to the east.
[edit] Boundary review
Following their review of parliamentary representation in South London, the Boundary Commission for England has made minor changes to the existing Croydon constituencies, with Croydon Central losing areas to the north and south and part of central Croydon.
The electoral wards used in the formation of the modified Central seat are:
- Addiscombe, Ashburton, Fairfield, Fieldway, Heathfield, New Addington, Shirley and Woodside.
[edit] History
The constituency that preceded Croydon Central in this area, Croydon South (not to be confused with the current Croydon South constituency) had twice seen Croydon's only Labour MPs before the 1990s. David Rees-Williams had held the seat from the 1945 Labour landslide until unfavourable boundary changes in 1950. David Winnick won the seat in 1966 before losing in 1970. Otherwise the seat, and indeed the rest of Croydon, had always been firm Conservative territory.
Historically, Labour's strength in the area had been on the council estates, particularly New Addington. However, there were important demographic changes across Croydon that saw greater numbers of ethnic minorities and residents of inner London move to Croydon from the 1970s onwards, making the area, especially north west Croydon, more favourable for Labour.
In 1997, Croydon's seats were reduced from four to three and the displaced Conservative Members had to face one another for the right to stand in the new Croydon Central seat (Croydon North by now being a Labour-held seat). The MP for Croydon North East, David Congdon, beat off Sir Paul Beresford, the MP for the former Croydon Central seat. However, three years after Labour had taken control of Croydon Council, Labour's Geraint Davies saw off Congdon with a majority of 4,000. He held the seat with a similar majority in 2001 but lost by just 75 votes to Conservative Andrew Pelling in 2005, with the Liberal Democrats and Green Party gaining some 7,000 votes between them.
[edit] Members of Parliament
- 1974 – 1992: John Moore, Conservative
- 1992 – 1997: Sir Paul Beresford, Conservative
- 1997 – 2005: Geraint Davies, Labour
- 2005 – present: Andrew Pelling, Conservative
[edit] Election results
| General Election 2005: Croydon Central | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Conservative | Andrew Pelling | 19,974 | 40.8 | +2.3 | |
| Labour | Geraint Davies | 19,899 | 40.6 | −6.6 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Jeremy Hargreaves | 6,384 | 13.0 | +1.8 | |
| UK Independence | Ian Edwards | 1,066 | 2.2 | +1.0 | |
| Green | Bernice Golberg | 1,036 | 2.1 | N/A | |
| Veritas | Marianne Bowness | 304 | 0.6 | N/A | |
| Monster Raving Loony | John Cartwright | 193 | 0.4 | -0.5 | |
| The People's Choice! Exclusively For All | Janet Stears | 101 | 0.2 | N/A | |
| Majority | 75 | 0.2 | |||
| Turnout | 48,957 | 60.6 | +1.5 | ||
| Conservative gain from Labour | Swing | +4.4 | |||
| General Election 2001: Croydon Central | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Labour | Geraint Davies | 21,643 | 47.2% | +1.6% | |
| Conservative | David Congdon | 17,659 | 38.5% | -0.1% | |
| Liberal Democrats | Paul Booth | 5,156 | 11.2% | +0.4% | |
| UK Independence | James Feisenberger | 545 | 1.2% | +0.7% | |
| British National | Linda Miller | 449 | 1.0% | N/A | |
| Monster Raving Loony | John Cartwright | 408 | 0.9% | N/A | |
| Majority | 3,984 | 8.7% | |||
| Turnout | 45,860 | 59.1% | -10.5% | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
