Uxbridge and South Ruislip (UK Parliament constituency)

Uxbridge and South Ruislip is a constituency^{[n 1]} represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Boris Johnson, a Conservative. ^{[n 2]}

It is considered a safe seat for the Conservative Party; the Conservative Party won the two most recent elections by a margin of about 25%, and since 1970 all fourteen parliamentary elections in this constituency and its predecessor (the constituency of Uxbridge) were won by the Conservatives.

History

Most of the constituency came from that of Uxbridge which was first established under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, however part of the seat derived from Ruislip-Northwood which was carved out from the other seat, as was Hayes and Harlington in 1950, reflecting the growth in population across the area during the period from 1918, the previous creation of new seats on a national basis.

Political history

In 2010 for the locally selected Conservative standing, the one-party swing in the seat was only 0.1% greater than that seen nationally, however, was enough on the newly drawn constituency boundaries to provide the winning candidate, John Randall, born in Uxbridge, with 48.3% of the vote, and a majority of more than 11,000 votes.

In the election only the three largest parliamentary parties reached the 5% of the vote threshold and thus retained their deposits.

Boundaries

The boundaries of the constituency changed prior to the general election in 2010 as Parliament approved the Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies. Ickenham and parts of West Ruislip were allocated to the Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner new seat. Treating the constituency as the direct successor to the Uxbridge seat, it gained the electoral wards:

• Cavendish, South Ruislip and Manor.^[2]

The seat now has the following electoral wards:

• Brunel, Cavendish, Hillingdon East, Manor, South Ruislip, Uxbridge North, Uxbridge South, and Yiewsley in the London Borough of Hillingdon

Constituency profile

The seat has three tube stations, and spacious urban districts of Outer London. The area, in contrast to Hayes and inner western suburbs, is without brutalist tower blocks, and is instead beside the Colne Valley regional park. The highest density of buildings is found close to historic Uxbridge town centre, a London hub in a seat that is ethnically diverse and prosperous, including on its outskirts Brunel University. Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 2.6% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.^[3]

Members of Parliament

John Randall, MP for the seat since its creation in 2010 and for the old Uxbridge seat since a by-election in 1997, announced in July 2014 that he would be retiring at the May 2015 general election.^[4] On 12 September 2014 Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, was selected to be the Conservative candidate at the general election.^[5]

Election results

Source: BBC News^[18]

* Served as an MP in the 2005–2010 Parliament

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London

Notes and references

Notes

References

Coordinates: 51°32′N 0°26′W / 51.54°N 0.44°W / 51.54; -0.44