Acton (UK Parliament constituency)

Acton
Former Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
County	1918–1965: County of London 1965–1983: Greater London
1950 (1950)–1983 (1983)
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Ealing Acton
1918 (1918)–1950 (1950)
Number of members	One
Type of constituency	County constituency
Created from	Ealing

Acton was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, created for the 1918 general election. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election.

The constituency was abolished for the 1983 general election, and replaced by the new Ealing Acton constituency.

Contents 1 Boundaries 2 Members of Parliament 3 Elections 3.1 Elections in the 1920s 3.2 Elections in the 1940s 3.3 Elections in the 1960s 4 References

Boundaries

The constituency came into existence in 1918, as a division of the county of Middlesex, to the west of the County of London. It was based on the town of Acton, which like most of Middlesex in the twentieth century became part of the London conurbation. The seat consisted of the Acton Urban District, which became a Municipal Borough in 1921.

In the redistribution of Parliamentary seats, which took effect at the United Kingdom general election, 1950, there was no change to the boundaries. However the constituency was re-classified as a borough constituency.

In 1965 the area became part of the London Borough of Ealing and Greater London.

In the redistribution which took effect at the February 1974 general election, the constituency became a division of Ealing (although it is not customary to use the London Borough prefix for the 1974-1983 period). The constituency consisted of six wards of the London Borough of Ealing - Central, East, Hanger Hill, Heathfield, Southfield and Springfield.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Sir Harry Brittain	Unionist
	1929	James Shillaker	Labour
	1931	Hubert Duggan	Conservative
	1943 by-election	Henry Longhurst	National Conservative
	1945	Joseph Sparks	Labour
	1959	Philip Holland	Conservative
	1964	Bernard Floud	Labour
	1968 by-election	Kenneth Baker	Conservative
	1970	Nigel Spearing	Labour
	Feb 1974	Sir George Young	Conservative
1983		constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1929[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	J F Shillaker	13,206	41.4	+17.4
	Conservative	Sir Harry Brittain	12,739	39.9	-14.2
	Liberal	Frank Medlicott	5,981	18.7	+5.5
Majority			467	1.5
Turnout			31,926	75.5
	Labour gain from Conservative

Elections in the 1940s

Acton by-election, 1943
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Longhurst	5,014
	Ind. Labour Party	Walter Padley	2,336		N/A
	Independent	Dorothy Crisp	707		N/A
	Independent	Edward Godfrey	258		N/A
Majority			2,678
Turnout			8,315
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

Acton by-election, 1968
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Kenneth Baker	12,242	48.67	+6.36
	Labour	Walter Johnson	8,522	33.88	-23.81
	Liberal	Frank Davis	2,868	11.40	N/A
	National Front	Andrew Fountaine	1,400	5.57	N/A
	Independent	Harold Fox	75	0.30	N/A
	Independent	William Gold	44	0.17	N/A
Turnout			25,151
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "A" (part 1)