| Bethnal Green and Bow | |
|---|---|
| Borough constituency | |
| for the House of Commons | |
Boundary of Bethnal Green and Bow in Greater London. |
|
| County | Greater London |
| Electorate | 79,581 (December 2010)[1] |
| Current constituency | |
| Created | 1997 |
| Member of Parliament | Rushanara Ali (Labour) |
| Number of members | One |
| Created from | Bethnal Green and Stepney |
| 1974–1983 | |
| Number of members | One |
| Replaced by | Bethnal Green and Stepney |
| Created from | Bethnal Green |
| Overlaps | |
| European Parliament constituency | London |
Bethnal Green and Bow is a parliamentary constituency located in Greater London, 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 constituency first existed 1974-1983, and was re-created in 1997. It is one of the poorest constituencies in London, and is one of the most ethnically diverse, with a large minority being Bangladeshi.
Contents |
The 1974-1983 constituency comprised the then London Borough of Tower Hamlets wards of Bethnal Green Central, Bethnal Green East, Bethnal Green North, Bethnal Green South, Bethnal Green West, Bow North, Bow South, Bromley, Holy Trinity and Spitalfields.
Between the 1983 and 1997 general elections, the equivalent seat was Bethnal Green and Stepney.
Following the review of parliamentary representation in North London in 2001, the Boundary Commission for England has modified the seat of Bethnal Green and Bow. A name change to "Tower Hamlets North" was rejected. The electoral wards which are used in the re-drawn Bethnal Green and Bow are entirely within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
The Tower Hamlets wards of Blackwall and Cubitt Town, Bromley-by-Bow, East India and Lansbury, Limehouse, Mile End East, Millwall, St Katherine’s and Wapping and Shadwell have been moved to the new constituency of Poplar and Limehouse.
The seat is centred on the northern part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, taking in much of Bethnal Green, Bow and Stepney. It includes much of the traditional East End and Brick Lane. The seat has one of the highest Muslim communities in the country and there are areas of significant poverty and deprivation.
This is traditionally very safe Labour territory, though the 2005 Respect breakthrough showed that moderate Labour candidates might not be left-wing enough for the electorate and a vulnerable to attack from the far-left who are well-organised locally.
In 1974 the Bethnal Green constituency was abolished. A new seat was created with the strict official name of Tower Hamlets, Bethnal Green and Bow. However the London Borough prefix is not commonly used for seats in the 1974-1983 redistribution.
The 1974-1983 constituency was a safe Labour seat, with the Liberal Party in a distant second place. Ian Mikardo, a well known back bench Labour MP, represented the area in this period.
Between 1983 and 1997, most of the present constituency formed the seat of Bethnal Green and Stepney.
The borough of Tower Hamlets has a reputation for being a bastion of radical politics, with Communists and more recently the Respect MP George Galloway being elected to Parliament as well as providing massive Labour majorities. Before a recent revival, the Conservative Party last won council seats in the area in 1931. The Liberal Party remained the main challengers to Labour in the Bethnal Green area but the loss of Percy Harris as Bethnal Green South West MP and eventually as London County Councillor too (despite a temporary comeback in 1946) put them out of the running in Parliamentary elections until a Liberal revival began in Bow in the late 1970s. Tower Hamlets was the only London Borough to have had seats held by the Communist Party of Great Britain; they lost their last seats in 1971. Between 1945 and 1950, Mile End provided the CPGB with one of its two parliamentary seats, being represented by Phil Piratin. Two Communists also won seats on the London County council (LCC) in 1947.
Between 1986 and 1994, the Liberal Democrats controlled Tower Hamlets London Borough Council, this proved a successful but controversial period. The delivery of major infrastructure projects, including many schools and school housing projects, was balanced by alleged corruption.
In the 1997 general election, there was a swing of 5% to the Conservative Party at a time when the national trend was a landslide swing against them. Bethnal Green and Bow was one of only two constituencies in the country to have any sort of pro-Conservative swing. This unusual result was ascribed to problems over the selection of a Labour Party candidate, following the retirement of Peter Shore. Oona King, who won the selection, was not well known and many in the local area would have preferred a candidate from a Bangladeshi background. However the leading Bangladeshi candidates were identified with the extremist left and were excluded from the selection.
Following British participation in the invasion of Iraq, an action deeply unpopular with the Muslim community in the constituency but nevertheless supported by Oona King, the newly formed Respect coalition gained support. They topped the poll in Tower Hamlets in the 2004 European Parliamentary elections and subsequently won their first local council seat in a by-election. In the May 2005 general election, the seat was narrowly won by former Labour MP George Galloway, one of Respect's leading figures. Respect also won seats in the 2006 local council elections although its performance was not as strong as many observers believed it could have been.
George Galloway has attracted criticism for lack of attendance at Parliament, especially when he appeared in the reality TV programme Big Brother. However, he has countered that he has not missed any crucial votes and that the best way for him to advance the interests of his constituents is by general campaigning. Galloway had always said that he only intended to stay in the seat for one parliament and in 2010 stood for the neighbouring constituency of Poplar and Limehouse. However, he lost the poll to the Labour incumbent Jim Fitzpatrick.
In September 2007, the Respect party selected Abjol Miah, the leader of the Respect Group on Tower Hamlets Council as their candidate to replace George Galloway in Bethnal Green and Bow. He had worked in the local area as a radio presenter, drugs worker and martial arts trainer. Previously, Miah had ousted Council Leader Michael Keith, along with two other cabinet members. The Labour Party selected Rushanara Ali, an Oxford graduate who had previously worked as Parliamentary Assistant to former MP Oona King,[2] then working for local charity The Young Foundation. Ajmal Masroor, a television presenter on political debates and an imam,[3] was the Liberal Democrat Candidate. Zakir Khan was selected by the Conservative Party from an open primary. He was the Head of Public Affairs for the Canary Wharf Group based in Tower Hamlets, and a former sports manager.
The election result was a clear win for Labour, this constituency being one of only three that Labour gained in the 2010 election, and represented a major setback for Respect (which thereby lost its only seat in Parliament). Ali won with 21,784 votes (42.9%, up 8.4% for Labour); Masroor came in second with 10,210 (20.1%, up 7.8% for the Liberal Democrats); Miah received only 8,532 votes, 16.8% of the total, representing a 19.8% fall in the Respect vote; and Khan received 7,071 (13.9%, a 2.0% increase in the Conservative vote).
| Election | Member [4] | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 1974 | Ian Mikardo | Labour Co-operative | |
| 1983 | constituency abolished: see Bethnal Green and Stepney | ||
| 1997 | constituency recreated | ||
| 1997 | Oona King | Labour | |
| 2005 | George Galloway | Respect | |
| 2010 | Rushanara Ali | Labour | |
| Election | Political result | Candidate | Party | Votes | % | ±% | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 General Election Electorate: 79,581 Turnout: 50,728 (62.4%) +10.9 |
Labour gain from Respect Majority: 11,574 (22.8%) N/A Swing: 14.1%% from Respect to Lab |
Rushanara Ali | Labour | 21,784 | 42.9 | +8.4 | ||
| Ajmal Masroor | Liberal Democrat | 10,210 | 20.1 | +7.8 | ||||
| Abjol Miah | Respect | 8,532 | 16.8 | -19.8 | ||||
| Zakir Khan | Conservative | 7,071 | 13.9 | +2.0 | ||||
| Jeffrey Marshall | BNP | 1,405 | 2.8 | N/A | ||||
| Farid Bakht | Green | 856 | 1.7 | -2.8 | ||||
| Patrick Brooks | Independent | 277 | 0.5 | N/A | ||||
| Alexander van Terheyden | Pirate | 213 | 0.4 | N/A | ||||
| Hasib Hikmat | Independent | 213 | 0.4 | N/A | ||||
| Haji Mahmood Choudhury | Independent | 100 | 0.2 | N/A | ||||
| Ahmed Abdul Malik | Independent | 71 | 0.1 | N/A | ||||
| 2005 General Election Turnout: 44,007 (51.2%) +1.0 |
Respect gain from Labour Majority: 823 (1.9%) N/A Swing: 26.2% from Lab to Respect |
George Galloway | Respect | 15,801 | 35.9 | N/A | ||
| Oona King | Labour | 14,978 | 34.0 | -16.5 | ||||
| Shahagir Bakth Faruk | Conservative | 6,244 | 14.2 | -10.1 | ||||
| Syed Nurul Islam Dulu | Liberal Democrat | 4,928 | 11.2 | -4.3 | ||||
| John Foster | Green | 1,950 | 4.4 | +0.1 | ||||
| Ejiro Etefia | Independent | 68 | 0.2 | N/A | ||||
| Celia Pugh | Communist League | 38 | 0.1 | N/A | ||||
| 2001 General Election Turnout: 38,414 (50.2%) -10.1 |
Labour hold Majority: 10,057 (26.2%) +0.9 |
Oona King | Labour | 19,380 | 50.5 | +4.1 | ||
| Shahagir Bakth Faruk | Conservative | 9,323 | 24.3 | +3.2 | ||||
| Janet Ludlow | Liberal Democrat | 5,946 | 15.5 | +3.5 | ||||
| Anna Bragga | Green | 1,666 | 4.3 | +2.5 | ||||
| Michael Davidson | BNP | 1,211 | 3.2 | -4.3 | ||||
| Dennis Delderfield | New Britain | 888 | 2.3 | N/A | ||||
| 1997 General Election Turnout: 44,682 (60.3%) -5.2 |
Labour win Majority: 11,285 (25.3%) N/A |
Oona King | Labour | 20,697 | 46.3 | -9.5 | ||
| Kabir Choudhury | Conservative | 9,412 | 21.1 | +3.2 | ||||
| Syed Nurul Islam Dulu | Liberal Democrat | 5,361 | 12.0 | -10.3 | ||||
| David King | BNP | 3,350 | 7.5 | +3.9 | ||||
| Terry Milson | Liberal | 2,963 | 6.6 | N/A | ||||
| Sheref Osman | Independent | 1,117 | 2.5 | N/A | ||||
| Stephen Petter | Green | 812 | 1.8 | N/A | ||||
| Muhammed Abdullah | Referendum Party | 557 | 1.2 | N/A | ||||
| Abdul Hamid | Socialist Labour | 413 | 0.9 | N/A | ||||
According to the 2001 census, the constituency is one of the diverse areas in the UK. It has a population of around 112,000 people, 46.4 per cent are of White race (52,148), the second largest ethnic group was, Bangladeshi (40,082) constituting 35.7 per cent of the population, other Asians 2.7 per cent (includes Indians, Pakistanis and other Asians - 3,069), those of Black race (5,494) constitute 4.9 per cent (includes Black Africans and Caribbeans), Mixed race (2,699) 2.4 per cent, Chinese (1,194) 1.1 per cent, and other ethnic groups less than 1 per cent. Statistics from the census also indicated that about 40 per cent of people are Muslims within the constituency, the highest in England.[5]
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