Streatham (UK Parliament constituency)

Streatham
Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Streatham in Greater London.
County	Greater London
Electorate	71,913 (December 2010)[1]
Current constituency
Created	1918 (1918)
Member of Parliament	Chuka Umunna (Labour)
Number of members	One
Created from	Wandsworth
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	London

Streatham 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.

Contents 1 Boundaries 2 History 3 Constituency Profile 4 Members of Parliament 5 Election results 6 References 7 Sources 8 See also

Boundaries

Streatham is a long, thin constituency running down the western side of the London Borough of Lambeth.^[2] The town of Streatham constitutes only the four wards in the southern half of the constituency. At its north-western tip it includes half of Clapham Common, while in the north-east it takes in part of the district of Brixton which is also split between neighbouring Vauxhall and Dulwich and West Norwood.

Following their 2006 review of parliamentary boundaries, the Boundary Commission for England made some minor changes to the Streatham constituency boundaries to bring them into line with Lambeth electoral ward boundaries^[3]

The main changes - that took effect from the 2010 election - were to move two areas into Dulwich and West Norwood: streets south of Coldharbour Lane and east of Effra Road; and areas north and east of the Tulse Hill Tavern road junction. The wards now comprising the seat are:

• Brixton Hill, Clapham Common, St Leonard's, Streatham Hill, Streatham South, Streatham Wells, Thornton and Tulse Hill.

The northern boundary follows Clapham Park Road, Acre Lane, and Coldharbour Lane through Clapham and Brixton to Lambeth Town Hall. The north-eastern boundary generally follows Effra Road and Tulse Hill, but runs east of the main road to include the part of the Tulse Hill estate and the Cressingham Gardens estate west of Brockwell Park. The boundary skirts the Tulse Hill district centre, following Hardel Rise, Christchurch Road and Norwood Road, and then runs along Leigham Vale and Leigham Court Road. The southern and western constituency boundaries follow Lambeth's borough boundaries with Croydon, Merton and Wandsworth.

History

The first 'Streatham' constituency was contested in 1918 and approximately followed the historic parish boundaries of Streatham, including a substantial part of Balham.

The constituency was carved out of the former constituency of Wandsworth. The rest of the Wandsworth constituency was divided into Putney, Wandsworth Central and Balham and Tooting.

The 1918 boundaries of the Streatham constituency remained unchanged until the 1965 changes to Greater London local government were eventually reflected in the constituency boundaries fought at the February 1974 general election. This resulted in a net reduction in the size of the Streatham constituency. The western districts which were now in the London Borough of Wandsworth were divided between two new constituencies. The Balham wards became part of Battersea South while Streatham Park (location of the Streatham Conservative Club) and the remainder of Furzedown ward went into Tooting.

The rest of the constituency, including the town of Streatham was now in the London Borough of Lambeth, and Streatham became one of four Borough constituency divisions of Lambeth, along with 'Vauxhall', 'Norwood' and 'Lambeth Central'. The Clapham constituency was abolished as part of the 1974 changes. The Clapham Park area and Hyde Farm (commonly thought of as part of Balham) came into the Streatham seat, whereas the rest of Clapham went into the Vauxhall seat - a split which continues to the present.

With the abolition of Lambeth Central at the 1983 election, the constituency gained much of southern Brixton. Following further population decline, Lambeth was paired with Southwark in the next boundary review, and from the 1997 election, Streatham constituency gained areas around Tulse Hill from the former Norwood constituency, the remainder of which became part of Dulwich and West Norwood.

Having lost Streatham in 1992, the Conservatives were beaten into third place by the Liberal Democrats in 2001, and there have been further significant swings from Labour to the Liberal Democrats at the two subsequent General elections with only a marginal improvement in the Conservative share of the vote in 2010.

Constituency Profile

In all its forms, the Streatham Constituency was represented by the Conservatives from 1918 until 1992.

Once a byword for solidly Tory suburbia, Streatham has swung heavily against the Conservative Party since the 1980s, even more than other similar seats in South London (such as Croydon North, Dulwich, Lewisham East and West). The seat was previously so safe that the Conservatives still won it in disastrous years for them such as 1945 and 1966.

However, demographic and voting pattern changes combined with unfavourable boundary changes conspired to turn Streatham first into a marginal, then into a safe Labour seat. Now there are signs that the seat will become marginal between Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Today much of the seat would be better described as 'inner London' rather than 'suburban'. In many areas, the large Victorian houses have been either demolished or converted into far smaller flats, though there are still pockets of significant affluence in the seat, especially in the areas around Tooting Bec Common.

The high street from Brixton to Streatham has become something of a leisure hub for South London, with restaurants, cinemas, music venues and an ice rink attracting visitors from nearby Tooting, Norbury and Mitcham.

The seat has a substantial black population, particularly in the wards near Brixton, as well as significant numbers of Asian voters.

Members of Parliament

The current MP is Chuka Umunna (Labour) who succeeded Keith Hill, who retired at the 2010 election.

Election		Member	Party	Notes
	1918	Sir William Lane-Mitchell	Coalition Conservative	Sir William sat as a "Unionist"
	1922		Conservative
	1939 by-election	Sir David Robertson	Conservative	The wartime by-election caused by Lane-Mitchell's death was uncontested
	1950	Duncan Sandys	Conservative	When Sandys was criticised in the 1950s for his infrequent appearances in the constituency, he responded that he was the "Member for Streatham in Westminster, not the Member for Westminster in Streatham".[4]
	1974	Sir William Shelton	Conservative
	1992	Keith Hill	Labour	First Labour MP to represent the constituency
	2010	Chuka Umunna	Labour	First MP to represent the constituency she/he grew up in.[5] Elected in June 2010 by parliamentary colleagues to serve on the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee[6]

Election results

General Election 2010: Streatham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Chuka Umunna	20,037	42.8	-4.2
	Liberal Democrat	Chris Nicholson	16,778	35.8	+6.3
	Conservative	Rahoul Bhansali	8,578	18.3	+2.0
	Green	Rebecca Findlay	861	1.8	-3.7
	Christian	Geoffrey Macharia	237	0.5	+0.5
	English Democrats	Janus Polenceus	229	0.5	+0.5
	Workers Revolutionary	Paul Lepper	117	0.2	-0.1
Majority			3,259	7.0
Turnout			46,837	62.8	+11.0
	Labour hold		Swing	−5.2

NB Percentage comparions in the table above are against the notional result on the new constituency boundaries.

General Election 2005: Streatham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Keith Hill	18,950	46.7	−10.2
	Liberal Democrat	Darren Sanders	11,484	28.3	+10.0
	Conservative	James Sproule	7,238	17.8	−1.0
	Green	Shane Collins	2,245	5.5	+1.1
	UKIP	Trevor Gittings	396	1.0	N/A
	Workers Revolutionary	Billy Colvill	127	0.3	N/A
	Independent	Philippa Stone	100	0.2	N/A
	Independent	Robert West	40	0.1	N/A
	Independent	Sarah Acheng	35	0.1	N/A
Majority			7,466	18.4
Turnout			40,615	51.3	+2.6
	Labour hold		Swing	−10.1

General Election 2001: Streatham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Keith Hill	21,401	57.3	-5.5
	Liberal Democrat	Roger O'Brien	6,771	18.1	+4.6
	Conservative	Stephen Hocking	6,639	17.8	-4.0
	Green	Mohammed Sajid	1,641	4.4	N/A
	Socialist Alliance	Greg Tucker	906	2.4	N/A
Majority			14,630	39.2
Turnout			37,358	49.1	-11.0
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1997: Streatham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Keith Hill	28,181	62.8	+13.4
	Conservative	E. G. Noad	9,758	21.7	-16.7
	Liberal Democrat	Roger O'Brien	6,082	13.6	+3.6
	Referendum Party	J. J. Wall	864	1.9	N/A
Majority			18,423	41.1
Turnout			44,885	60.2
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1992: Streatham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Keith Hill	18,925	47.0
	Conservative	Sir William Shelton	16,608	41.3
	Liberal Democrat	M. J. Pindar	3,858	9.6
	Green	R. C. L. Baker	443	1.1
	Islamic Party	A. Hakin	154	0.4
	Rainbow Dream Ticket	Cynthia Payne	145	0.4
	Natural Law	J. V. Parsons	97	0.2
Majority			2,317	5.7
Turnout			40,230	70.3
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	5.75%

General Election 1987: Streatham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Shelton	18,916	45.0
	Labour	Mrs. E. A. Tapsall	16,509	39.2
	Liberal	M. W. Tuffrey	6,663	15.8
Majority			2,407	5.8
Turnout			42,088	69.5
	Conservative hold		Swing	4.6%

General Election 1983: Streatham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Shelton	18,264	46.5
	Labour	Miss M. M. Long	12,362	31.5
	Liberal	P. H. Billenness	8,321	21.2
	National Front	K. D. Handy	321	0.8
Majority			5,902	15.0
Turnout			39,268	65.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1979: Streatham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Shelton	19,630	51.44
	Labour	T. P. C. Daniel	14,130	37.02
	Liberal	J. S. Pincham	3,779	9.9
	National Front	G. W. Bryant	523	1.37
	Providers Through Care	A. J. Hollander	102	0.27
Majority			5,500	14.41
Turnout			38,164	71.54
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election October 1974: Streatham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Shelton	16,515	45.65
	Labour	J. Gaffin	13,648	37.73
	Liberal	R. Silver	4,987	13.79
	National Front	T. Lamb	817	2.26
	Independent	Miss T. E. Moore	210	0.58
Majority			2,867	7.92
Turnout			36,177	64.08
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election February 1974: Streatham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Shelton	18,457	45.15
	Labour	J. Gaffin	13,982	34.21
	Liberal	R. Silver	7,456	18.24
	National Front	T. Lamb	937	2.29
	Independent	Bill Boaks	45	0.11
Majority			4,475	10.95
Turnout			40,877	72.78
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1966: Streatham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	D. E. Sandys	19,872	54.63
	Labour	J. L. Walker	16,505	45.37
Majority			3,367	9.26
Turnout			36,377	70.41
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

Sources

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 5)

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London

Constituencies in London (73) Labour (37) Barking Bethnal Green and Bow Brent North Camberwell and Peckham Croydon North Dagenham and Rainham Dulwich and West Norwood Ealing North Ealing Southall East Ham Edmonton Eltham Erith and Thamesmead Feltham and Heston Greenwich and Woolwich Hackney North and Stoke Newington Hackney South and Shoreditch Hammersmith Harrow West Hayes and Harlington Hampstead and Kilburn Holborn and St. Pancras Ilford South Islington North Islington South and Finsbury Lewisham Deptford Lewisham East Lewisham West and Penge Leyton and Wanstead Mitcham and Morden Poplar and Limehouse Streatham Tooting Tottenham Vauxhall Walthamstow West Ham Westminster North Conservative (28) Battersea Beckenham Bexleyheath and Crayford Brentford and Isleworth Bromley and Chislehurst Chelsea and Fulham Chingford and Woodford Green Chipping Barnet Cities of London and Westminster Croydon Central Croydon South Ealing Central and Acton Enfield North Enfield Southgate Finchley and Golders Green Harrow East Hendon Hornchurch and Upminster Ilford North Kensington Old Bexley and Sidcup Orpington Putney Richmond Park Romford Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner Uxbridge and South Ruislip Wimbledon Liberal Democrats (7) Bermondsey and Old Southwark Brent Central Carshalton and Wallington Hornsey and Wood Green Kingston and Surbiton Sutton and Cheam Twickenham London European constituency: Conservative (3) Labour (2) Liberal Democrats (1) Green (1) UKIP (1)