Westminster North (UK Parliament constituency)

Westminster North
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Westminster North in Greater London.
County	Greater London
Electorate	65,936 (December 2010)
Major settlements	Maida Vale St John's Wood Queen's Park
Current constituency
Created	2010
Member of parliament	Karen Buck (Labour)
Number of members	One
Created from	Regent's Park & Kensington North Cities of London & Westminster(one ward and parts of two others)
1983–1997
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Regent's Park & Kensington North Cities of London & Westminster
Created from	Paddington and St Marylebone
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	London

Westminster North is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 2010 recreation by Karen Buck, a member of the Labour Party.

History

1983–1997

The seat was created under the Third Periodic Review of constituencies in 1983, which followed the first Boundary Commission Review in 1945, which in turn directly followed the Representation of the People Act 1918 review. It was based largely on Paddington but also took in the abolished St Marylebone constituency.

Political history

The seat was held with modest majorities for the first creation, made up of three terms, by John Wheeler, a Conservative. Paddington constituency, its main predecessor was often marginal: by length of a single party's representation and by majorities achieved. The far less contributory precursor, St Marylebone, was a Conservative safe seat.

The 1997 boundary changes expanded the constituency to the west, taking in Labour-voting areas of north Kensington and tilting the seat towards Labour. Wheeler decided that he did not wish to contest such unfavourable territory and sought selection elsewhere. However he was unsuccessful in finding a new safe seat and thus retired at the 1997 general election.

2010 to date

Political history

The seat was tipped in mainstream newspapers to fall to the Conservatives.

Boundaries

The seat has electoral wards:

• Abbey Road; Bayswater; Church Street; Harrow Road; Lancaster Gate; Little Venice; Maida Vale; Queen's Park; Regent's Park; and Westbourne in the City of Westminster.

History of boundaries

From 1983–1997 the constituency had the wards:

• Bayswater; Church Street; Hamilton Terrace; Harrow Road; Lancaster Gate; Little Venice; Lords; Maida Vale; Queen's Park; Regent's Park; and Westbourne.

Parliament accepted the Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which called for the recreation of this constituency for the General Election 2010. This was achieved from parts of two seats: the eastern three quarters of Regent's Park and Kensington North and northern parts of "Cities of London and Westminster":

• Lancaster Gate ward (that part of Bayswater closest to Hyde Park)
• A major part of a shared ward next to this, Bayswater
• Loss of a minor part of a shared ward, "Bryanston and Dorset Square", centred on Baker Street.

Population expansion across the former main seat was a factor, including Maida Vale, West Kilburn and to a lesser degree in St John's Wood which are retained as well as in Notting Hill and North Kensington which were therefore removed.

Constituency profile

Comprising the northwestern part of the City of Westminster, this seat and its main forerunner have been a Conservative hope since they effectively lost it in the 1997 General Election, but Labour have stubbornly held on to it following local council embezzlement under Shirley Porter, even though the constituency contains some affluent residential areas that have historically voted Conservative in large numbers such as Bayswater and the area on the western and northwestern sides of Regent's Park.

Lords Cricket Ground and the famous Abbey Road Studios are in the seat, while the Queen's Park, Church Street, Westbourne Park and Harrow Road areas, further from central London are more of mixed income brackets and have since 1997 often elected Labour councillors, though most parts of the seat have Conservative councillors in local elections.

Reflective of the excellent transport links to the selective professional industries of the City of London and long-standing desirable housing in this area, workless claimants who were registered jobseekers were in November 2012 lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 2.9% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party	Notes
	1983	John Wheeler	Conservative	Knighted in 1993
constituency abolished in 1997
	2010	Karen Buck	Labour	Member for main successor/predecessor seat (1997–2010)

Results

1983–1997 boundaries

Election	Political result		Candidate		Party	Votes	%	±%
General Election 1983  Electorate: 68,988 Turnout: 44,262 (64.2%)		Conservative hold Majority: 1,710 (3.8%) Swing: 0.5% from Con to Lab		John Daniel Wheeler	Conservative	19,134	43.2	–3.8
				Arthur Charles Latham	Labour	17,424	39.4	–2.8
				Thomas Guy Clare Halliwell	Social Democratic	6,956	15.7	+7.1
				Timothy Haydon Cooper	Ecology	527	1.2
				Thomas Leslie Keen	Independent	148	0.3
				Brian Fisher	Independent	73	0.2
General Election 1987  Electorate: 59,263 Turnout: 42,138 (71.1%) +6.9		Conservative hold Majority: 3,310 (7.8%) +4.0 Swing: 2.0% from Lab to Con		John Daniel Wheeler	Conservative	19,941	47.3	+4.1
				Jennifer Fitzgerald Edwards	Labour	16,631	39.5	+0.1
				Richard John De Ste Croix	Social Democratic	5,116	12.1	–3.6
				David Stutchfield	Green	450	1.1	–0.1
General Election 1992  Electorate: 59,405 Turnout: 44,585 (75.1%) +4.0		Conservative hold Majority: 3,733 (8.4%) +0.6 Swing: 0.3% from Lab to Con		John Daniel Wheeler	Conservative	21,828	49.0	+1.7
				Jennifer Fitzgerald Edwards	Labour	18,095	40.6	+1.1
				Lewis Justin Wigoder	Liberal Democrat	3,349	7.5	–4.6
				Amelia Nicola Burke	Green	1,017	2.3	+1.2
				Jonathan Robert Hinde	Natural Law	159	0.4
				Michael Francis Domville Kelly	Anti-Federalist League	137	0.3

2010 boundaries

Election	Political result		Candidate		Party	Votes	%	±%
General Election 2010  Electorate: 66,739 Turnout: 39,598 (59.3%)		Labour hold Majority: 2,126 (5.4%) Swing: 0.6% from Lab to Con		Karen Patricia Buck	Labour	17,377	43.9	+4.0
				Joanne Catherine Cash	Conservative	15,251	38.5	+5.2
				Mark David Harry Blackburn	Liberal Democrat	5,513	13.9	–5.7
				Tristan James Law Smith	Green	478	1.2	–3.5
				Stephen Curry	BNP	334	0.8
				Jasna Badzak	UKIP	315	0.8	–0.4
				Ali Bahaijoub	Independent	101	0.3
				Edward Roseman	English Democrats	99	0.3
				Gabriela Paulo Fajardo	Christian	98	0.2
				Abdulla Janmohamed Dharamsey	Independent	32	0.1
General Election 2015  Electorate: 62,346 Turnout: 39,514 (63.4%) +4.1		Labour hold Majority: 1,977 (5.0%) -0.4 Swing: 0.2% from Lab to Con		Karen Patricia Buck	Labour	18,504	46.8	+2.9
				Lindsey Jayne Bruce Hall	Conservative	16,527	41.8	+3.3
				Nigel Sussman	UKIP	1,489	3.8	+3.0
				Kirsty Roberta Allen	Liberal Democrat	1,457	3.7	–10.2
				Jennifer Dunham Nadel	Green	1,322	3.3	+2.1
				Gabriela Paulo Fajardo	Christian	152	0.4	+0.2
				Charles John Nicholas Ward	Independent	63	0.2

See also

• Kensington (UK Parliament constituency)
• Cities of London and Westminster (UK Parliament constituency)

Notes and references

Notes

References