Hornchurch (UK Parliament constituency)

Hornchurch
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Hornchurch in Greater London for the 2005 general election.
County	Greater London
1945–2010
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Hornchurch and Upminster, Dagenham and Rainham
Created from	Romford

Hornchurch was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. At the 2010 general election parts formed the new seats of Hornchurch and Upminster; and Dagenham and Rainham.

Boundaries

1974-1983: The London Borough of Havering wards of Elm Park, Hacton, Hylands, Rainham, St Andrew's, and South Hornchurch.

1983-2010: The London Borough of Havering wards of Airfield, Elm Park, Hacton, Hylands, Rainham, St Andrew's, and South Hornchurch.

Hornchurch in Essex, showing boundaries used from 1945 to 1950.

The seat encompassed Hornchurch, Rainham, Elm Park and the village of Wennington. It bordered on the other London constituencies of Romford and Upminster and like them, was part of the London Borough of Havering.

History

The south of the constituency has been seen as a site for building large entertainment centres on Rainham's large marshland area, and was viewed as a potential site for the European Disneyland project, although it was considered much less suitable than the current position near Paris. There have been plans to build a casino but permission is yet to be granted.

Hornchurch is a predominantly suburban and Conservative-voting area, but the seat is seen as a swing seat due to Rainham and Elm Park's working class voters and because the wealthiest Emerson Park area of Hornchurch does not form part of the constituency, instead forming part of Upminster constituency.

The Conservative Robin Squire was elected to Parliament as the member for Hornchurch on 3 May 1979, in one of the most surprising results of that election. Labour-held Hornchurch had not been a marginal seat and Squire had not expected to win it. However, he gained the seat from Alan Lee Williams with a majority of just 769 on a "freak" swing of 8.5% to his party. During the Thatcher years (1979 to 1990) Squire was considered to be a prominent "wet", opposed to the Conservative government's economic and employment policies. After Mrs Thatcher left office in 1990, Squire's political position strengthened and he held junior ministerial posts until the fall of the Major government in 1997. Squire was defending a majority of 9,165 - his personal popularity plus his prominence as a Minister led him to believe that he would hold the seat, but he lost to Labour's John Cryer with a 16% swing and a Labour majority of 5,680. Squire stood against Cryer again in the 2001 general election but was again defeated by a significant majority.

The constituency was abolished for the 2010 election. The areas of the constituency covered by the Elm Park, South Hornchurch, and Rainham and Wennington wards in the London Borough of Havering were merged with Dagenham to form a cross-borough Dagenham and Rainham constituency. Hacton and St Andrews wards in Hornchurch merged with Upminster to form Hornchurch and Upminster. Hylands ward in Hornchurch merged with Romford. Prior to the change in boundaries the new seats were predicted to be marginal Labour and safe Conservative respectively if they followed the voting patterns of the previous Dagenham, Upminster and Romford constituencies.^[1]

Members of Parliament

	Member ^[2]	Party
1945	Geoffrey Bing	Labour
1955	Godfrey Lagden	Conservative
1966	Alan Lee Williams	Labour
1970	John Loveridge	Conservative
Feb 1974	Alan Lee Williams	Labour
1979	Robin Squire	Conservative
1997	John Cryer	Labour
2005	James Brokenshire	Conservative
2010	constituency abolished: see Hornchurch and Upminster, Dagenham and Rainham & Romford

Elections

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Hornchurch
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Brokenshire	16,355	42.8	+0.5
	Labour	John Cryer	15,875	41.6	–4.8
	Liberal Democrat	Nat Green	2,894	7.6	–0.6
	BNP	Ian Moore	1,313	3.4	+3.4
	UKIP	Laurence Webb	1,033	2.7	+0.2
	Residents	Malvin Brown	395	1.0	+1.0
	Third Way	Graham Williamson	304	0.8	+0.3
Majority			480	1.3
Turnout			38,169	63.5	+5.6
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+2.6

General Election 2001: Hornchurch
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Cryer	16,514	46.4	–3.8
	Conservative	Robin Squire	15,032	42.3	+5.0
	Liberal Democrat	Sarah Lea	2,928	8.2	+0.4
	UKIP	Lawrence Webb	893	2.5	N/A
	Third Way	David Durant	190	0.5	N/A
Majority			1,482	4.1
Turnout			35,557	58.3	–14.5
	Labour hold		Swing	–4.4

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Hornchurch^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Cryer	22,066	50.2	+15.8
	Conservative	Robin Squire	16,386	37.3	−16.2
	Liberal Democrat	R Martins	3,446	7.8	−3.2
	Referendum Party	R Khilkoff-Bouldi	1,595	3.6	N/A
	Independent	J Trueman	259	0.6	N/A
	ProLife	J Sowerby	189	0.43	N/A
Majority			5,680	12.9
Turnout			43,941	72.8	−7.0
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	16.0

General Election 1992: Hornchurch^[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robin Squire	25,817	53.5	+2.3
	Labour	Miss LARG Cooper	16,652	34.5	+6.1
	Liberal Democrat	BJ Oddy	5,366	11.1	−9.3
	Independent Ind SD	TF Matthews	453	0.9	+0.9
Majority			9,165	19.0	−3.8
Turnout			48,288	79.8	+4.5
	Conservative hold		Swing	−1.9

Notes

↑ http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pbc/review_areas/North_London_Boroughs/downloads/North_London_Prov_Recs_PN.pdf
↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "H" (part 4)
↑ "Politics Resources". Election 1997. Politics Resources. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
↑ "Politics Resources". Election 1992. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Retrieved 6 December 2010.

Historic constituencies in London

1974	Acton Barking Battersea North Battersea South Beckenham Bermondsey Bethnal Green and Bow Bexleyheath Brent East Brent North Brent South Brentford and Isleworth Carshalton Chelsea Chingford Chipping Barnet Chislehurst City of London and Westminster South Croydon Central Croydon North East Croydon North West Croydon South Dagenham Dulwich Ealing North Edmonton Enfield North Enfield Southgate Erith and Crayford Feltham and Heston Finchley Fulham Greenwich Hackney Central Hackney North and Stoke Newington Hackney South and Shoreditch Hammersmith North Hampstead Harrow Central Harrow East Harrow West Hayes and Harlington Hendon North Hendon South Holborn and St Pancras South Hornchurch Hornsey Ilford North Ilford South Islington Central Islington North Islington South and Finsbury Kensington Kingston-upon-Thames Lambeth Central Lewisham Deptford Lewisham East Lewisham West Leyton Mitcham and Morden Newham North East Newham North West Newham South Norwood Orpington Paddington Peckham Putney Ravensbourne Richmond Romford Ruislip-Northwood St Marylebone St Pancras North Sidcup Southall Stepney and Poplar Streatham Surbiton Sutton and Cheam Tooting Tottenham Twickenham Upminster Uxbridge Vauxhall Walthamstow Wanstead and Woodford Wimbledon Wood Green Woolwich East Woolwich West

1983	Barking Battersea Beckenham Bethnal Green and Stepney Bexleyheath Bow and Poplar Brent East Brent North Brent South Brentford and Isleworth Carshalton and Wallington Chelsea Chingford Chipping Barnet Chislehurst City of London and Westminster South Croydon Central Croydon North East Croydon North West Croydon South Dagenham Dulwich Ealing Acton Ealing North Ealing Southall Edmonton Eltham Enfield North Enfield Southgate Erith and Crayford Feltham and Heston Finchley Fulham Greenwich Hackney North and Stoke Newington Hackney South and Shoreditch Hammersmith Hampstead and Highgate Harrow East Harrow West Hayes and Harlington Hendon North Hendon South Holborn and St Pancras Hornchurch Hornsey and Wood Green Ilford North Ilford South Islington North Islington South and Finsbury Kensington Kingston-upon-Thames Lewisham Deptford Lewisham East Lewisham West Leyton Mitcham and Morden Newham North East Newham North West Newham South Norwood Old Bexley and Sidcup Orpington Peckham Putney Ravensbourne Richmond and Barnes Romford Ruislip-Northwood Southwark and Bermondsey Streatham Surbiton Sutton and Cheam Tooting Tottenham Twickenham Upminster Uxbridge Vauxhall Walthamstow Wanstead and Woodford Westminster North Wimbledon Woolwich

1997	Barking Battersea Beckenham Bethnal Green and Bow Bexleyheath and Crayford Brent East Brent North Brent South Brentford and Isleworth Bromley and Chislehurst Camberwell and Peckham Carshalton and Wallington Chingford and Woodford Green Chipping Barnet Cities of London and Westminster Croydon Central Croydon North Croydon South Dagenham Dulwich and West Norwood Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush Ealing North Ealing Southall East Ham Edmonton Eltham Enfield North Enfield Southgate Erith and Thamesmead Feltham and Heston Finchley and Golders Green Greenwich and Woolwich Hackney North and Stoke Newington Hackney South and Shoreditch Hammersmith and Fulham Hampstead and Highgate Harrow East Harrow West Hayes and Harlington Hendon Holborn and St Pancras Hornchurch Hornsey and Wood Green Ilford North Ilford South Islington North Islington South and Finsbury Kensington and Chelsea Kingston and Surbiton Lewisham Deptford Lewisham East Lewisham West Leyton and Wanstead Mitcham and Morden North Southwark and Bermondsey Old Bexley and Sidcup Orpington Poplar and Canning Town Putney Regent's Park and Kensington North Richmond Park Romford Ruislip-Northwood Streatham Sutton and Cheam Tooting Tottenham Twickenham Upminster Uxbridge Vauxhall Walthamstow West Ham Wimbledon

Coordinates: 51°31′44″N 0°12′04″E / 51.529°N 0.201°E / 51.529; 0.201