Mitcham and Morden (UK Parliament constituency)
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| Mitcham and Morden Borough constituency |
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| Mitcham and Morden shown within Greater London | |
| Created: | 1974 |
| MP: | Siobhain McDonagh |
| Party: | Labour |
| Type: | House of Commons |
| County: | Greater London |
| EP constituency: | London |
Mitcham and Morden is a borough 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 seat was created in the 1974 boundary re-distribution from the former constituencies of Merton and Morden and Mitcham. Between 1974 and 1982 it was represented by Bruce Douglas-Mann who was elected as a Labour MP but defected in 1982 to the Social Democratic Party (SDP). On defecting he the resigned his seat and sought re-election as an SDP MP, he was the only defector to have resgined his seat. In the subsequent By-Election held in May 1982 at the time of the Falklands War, the seat elected Anglea Rumbold of the Conservative Party, this was the last time that any seat has been gained by a governing party in office.
At the 1997 General Election the seat reverted to Labour and Siobhain McDonagh was elected as Member of Parliament. At the 2001 General Election and the 2005 General Election, she was re-elected and her majority is 12,560 (31.5%) and the seat was the 87th safest Labour seat at the 2005 General Election. At the election, the constituency had the 3rd lowest swing to the Conservatives of any London constituency and Siobhain McDonagh has a larger percentage majority then when she was first-elected in 1997. The seat has had a swing to Labour of 22% since the 1987 General Election.
In recent years the constituency has undergone large demographic change with an increasing ethnic minority community. This has been of benefit to the Labour Party.
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[edit] Boundaries
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The constituency consists of the following wards Colliers Wood, Cricket Green, Figges Marsh, Graveney, Lavender Fields, Lower Morden, Longthornton, Pollards Hill, Ravensbury and St Helier.
At the 2006 Local Elections every ward except Lower Morden was won by Labour and the currently they hold 27 out of 30 seats in Mitcham and Morden.
The forthcoming Parliamentary boundary changes which will be implemented at the next election are relatively minor with about 750 electors moving from Mitcham and Morden to Wimbledon and about 500 electors moving from Wimbledon to Mitcham and Morden. This has been caused by wards being aligned with constituency boundaries following the implementation of new ward boundaries for the London Borough of Merton at the 2002 Local Elections.
[edit] Members of Parliament
| Year | Member | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Bruce Douglas-Mann | Labour, then Independent SDP | |
| 1982 | Angela Rumbold | Conservative | |
| 1997 | Siobhain McDonagh | Labour | |
[edit] Election results
| General Election 2005: Mitcham and Morden | |||||
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| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Labour | Siobhain McDonagh | 22,489 | 56.4 | −4.0 | |
| Conservative | Andrew Shellhorn | 9,929 | 24.9 | +0.8 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Jo Christie-Smith | 5,583 | 14.0 | +3.9 | |
| Green | Tom Walsh | 1,395 | 3.5 | +1.1 | |
| Veritas | Adrian Roberts | 286 | 0.7 | N/A | |
| Independent (politician) | Rathy Alagaratnam | 186 | 0.5 | N/A | |
| Majority | 12,560 | 31.5 | |||
| Turnout | 39,868 | 61.2 | +3.4 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | −2.4 | |||
| General Election 2001: Mitcham and Morden | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Labour | Siobhain McDonagh | 22,936 | 60.4 | +2.1 | |
| Conservative | Harry Stokes | 9,151 | 24.1 | -5.6 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Nick Harris | 3,820 | 10.1 | +2.5 | |
| Green | Tom Walsh | 926 | 2.4 | +1.6 | |
| British National | John Tyndall | 642 | 1.7 | +0.6 | |
| UKIP | Adrian Roberts | 486 | 1.3 | +1.0 | |
| Majority | 13,785 | 36.3 | |||
| Turnout | 37,961 | 57.8 | -15.5 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
