Battersea North (UK Parliament constituency)

Battersea North
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	County of London, then Greater London
1918–1983
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Battersea
Created from	Battersea

Battersea North was a parliamentary constituency in the then Metropolitan Borough of Battersea in South London. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first-past-the-post voting system.

It was created for the 1918 general election, when the former Battersea constituency was divided in two. It was abolished for the 1983 general election, when it was reunited with most of Battersea South to form the new Battersea constituency.

Boundaries

Battersea North in the Parliamentary County of London from 1918 to 1949.

A map showing the wards of Battersea Metropolitan Borough as they appeared in 1916.

Battersea North in the Parliamentary County of London from 1950 to 1974.

The constituency was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918 and was initially composed of four wards of the metropolitan borough: Church, Latchmere, Nine Elms and Park. When seats were redistributed by the Representation of the People Act 1948 the seat was redefined as consisting of five wards by the addition of the Winstanley ward, transferred from Battersea South. However the wards of the borough were redrawn in 1949 prior to the next general election in 1950. Accordingly, changes were made under the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1949. Of the 16 new wards, eight were included in each of the Battersea North and South constituencies. From 1950 to 1974 Battersea North consisted of Church, Latchmere, Newtown, Nine Elms, Park, Queenstown, Vicarage and Winstanley wards.

In 1965 Battersea became part of the London Borough of Wandsworth. This, however made no immediate change to the parliamentary constituencies. It was not until the general election of February 1974 that the constituency boundaries were altered. Renamed Wandsworth, Battersea North, the seat was defined as consisting of five wards of the London Borough: Latchmere, Queenstown, St John's, St Mary's Park and Shaftesbury. Shaftesbury and St John's were transferred from Battersea South. These boundaries were used until abolition.

The constituency was abolished for the election of 1983, and was subsumed by the new Battersea seat, where it formed 61.5% of the total constituency (with the addition of the Balham, Fairfield and Northcote wards from Battersea South).

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Richard Morris	Coalition Liberal
	1922	Shapurji Saklatvala	Communist
	1923	Henry Cairn Hogbin	Liberal
	1924	Shapurji Saklatvala	Communist
	1929	William Stephen Sanders	Labour
	1931	Arthur Marsden	Conservative
	1935	William Sanders	Labour
	1940 by-election	Francis Douglas	Labour
	1946 by-election	Douglas Jay	Labour
	1983	constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 3 May 1979: Battersea North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Jay	15,384	56.22	-6.00
	Conservative	P Phillips	9,358	21.82	11.40
	Liberal	W Brown	2,021	7.18	-3.87
	National Front	Michael Salt	772	2.74	-1.79
	Workers (Leninist)	A Lavelle	104	0.37	N/A
	Workers Revolutionary	P Clay	47	0.17	N/A
	Community Party	J Harwell	30	0.11	N/A
Majority			6,746	22.99	-10.13
Turnout				67.98	6.42
	Labour hold		Swing	-8.70

General Election 10 October 1974: Battersea North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Jay	17,161	62.22	3.43
	Conservative	Simon J C Randall	6,019	21.82	-3.85
	Liberal	C R Williams	3,048	11.05	-3.43
	National Front	R Friend	1,250	4.53	N/A
	Communist (ML)	Carol Reakes	102	0.37	-0.29
Majority			11,142	33.12	7.28
Turnout				61.56	-9.16
	Labour hold		Swing	3.64

General Election 28 February 1974: Battersea North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Jay	18,503	58.79	-6.72
	Conservative	Simon Randall	8,080	25.67	-2.10
	Liberal	John Savile	4,683	14.88	9.18
	Communist (ML)	Carol Reakes	208	0.66	N/A
Majority			10,423	33.12	-14.14
Turnout				70.72	12.03
	Labour hold		Swing	-8.00

General Election 18 June 1970: Battersea North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Jay	11,621	65.51	-6.61
	Conservative	Anthony V Bradbury	4,927	27.77	2.91
	Liberal	Hester M G Smallbone	1,012	5.70	N/A
	Communist	D Welsh	179	1.01	-2.01
Majority			6,694	47.26	-9.52
Turnout				58.69	-3.52
	Labour hold		Swing	-6.15

Elections in the 1960s

General Election 31 March 1966: Battersea North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Jay	15,522	72.12	8.41
	Conservative	C Peter M Davidson	5,350	24.86	-0.06
	Communist	Mrs. Gladys M Easton	650	3.02	1.01
Majority			10,172	47.26	33.59
Turnout				63.21	-2.51
	Labour hold		Swing	4.24

General Election 15 October 1964: Battersea North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Jay	14,930	63.71	-4.13
	Conservative	Robert George Taylor	5,847	24.95	-7.21
	Liberal	Stephen R Jakobi	2,187	9.33	N/A
	Communist	Mrs. Gladys M Easton	471	2.01	N/A
Majority			9,083	13.67	25.09
Turnout			35,659	65.72	-4.84
	Labour hold		Swing	-5.67

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 8 October 1959:

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Patrick Thomas Jay	19,595	67.84	-2.89
	Conservative	Robert George Taylor	9,289	32.16	4.99
Majority			6,533	13.67	-29.9
Turnout			40,937	70.56	1.21
	Labour hold		Swing	-3.94

General Election 26 May 1955: Battersea North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Patrick Thomas Jay	20,980	70.73	-1.8
	Conservative	Walter Ian Percival	8,058	27.17	-0.3
	Independent	Eric Fenner	622	2.10	N/A
Majority			12,922	43.57	-1.58
Turnout			42,766	69.35	-10.89
	Labour hold		Swing	-1.1

General Election 25 October 1951: Battersea North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Patrick Thomas Jay	25,882	72.53	2.96
	Conservative	Walter Ian Percival	9,905	27.47	-1.95
Majority			16,077	45.05	1.00
Turnout				80.24	-0.46
	Labour hold		Swing	2.46

General Election 23 February 1950: Battersea North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Patrick Thomas Jay	24,762	69.57	-4.33
	Conservative	Martin Madden	9,084	25.52	-0.58
	Liberal	Edward Richter Handscombe	1,090	3.06	N/A
	Communist	John Mahon	655	1.84	N/A
Majority			15,678	44.05
Turnout				80.7
	Labour hold		Swing	-3.75

Elections in the 1940s

Francis Douglas was appointed Governor of Malta, leading to a by-election.

by-election, 25 July 1946:
constituency of Battersea North
Composed of the Battersea wards of Church, Latchmere, Nine Elms and Park
Electorate 29,652, Turnout 55.4%, Voters 16,427

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Douglas Jay	11,329	68.9	−5.0
	Conservative	B A Shattock	4,858	29.6	+3.5
	Ind. Labour Party	Hugo Dewar	240	1.5	N/A
Majority			6,471	39.3	−8.5
Turnout			16427	55.4
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 5 to 19 July 1945:
constituency of Battersea North
Composed of the Battersea wards of Church, Latchmere, Nine Elms and Park
Electorate 26,783, Turnout 71.09%, Voters 19,039

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Francis Douglas	14,070	73.9
	Conservative	J G W Paget	4,969	26.1
Majority			9,101	47.8
	Labour hold		Swing

William Sanders resigned in 1940, leading to a by-election.

by-election, 17 April 1940:
constituency of Battersea North
Composed of the Battersea wards of Church, Latchmere, Nine Elms and Park
Electorate 42,725, Turnout 25.1%, Voters 10,738

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Francis Douglas	9,947	92.6	33.9
	Independent	E.C. Joyce	791	7.4	N/A
Majority			9,156	85.2	+67.8
Turnout			10,738	25.1	-38.4
	Labour hold		Swing	N/A

Election in the 1930s

General Election 14 November 1935:
constituency of Battersea North
Composed of the Battersea wards of Church, Latchmere, Nine Elms and Park
Electorate 47,213, Turnout 63.5%%,

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	William Stephen Sanders	17,596	58.7	23.1
	Conservative	Arthur Marsden	12,393	41.3	-14.1
Majority			5,203	17.4	N/A
Turnout			29,989	63.5	-4.1
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	18.6%

General Election 27 October 1931:
constituency of Battersea North
Composed of the Battersea wards of Church, Latchmere, Nine Elms and Park
Electorate 49,873, Turnout 67.6%%,

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Commander Arthur Marsden	18,688	55.5%
	Labour	William Stephen Sanders	11,985	35.6%
	Communist	Shapurji Saklatvala	3,021	8.9%
Majority			6,703	19.9%
Turnout			33,694
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

Election in the 1920s

General Election 30 May 1929: Battersea North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	William Stephen Sanders	13,265	37.8	n/a
	Unionist	Arthur Marsden	10,833	30.8	n/a
	Communist	Shapurji Saklatvala	6,554	18.6	-32.3
	Liberal	Thomas Patrick Brogan	4,513	12.9	n/a
Majority			2,432	7.0	8.8
Turnout				69.7	-3.4
	Labour gain from Communist		Swing	n/a

Henry Hogbin

General Election 29 October 1924: Battersea North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Communist	Shapurji Saklatvala	15,096	50.9
	Constitutionalist	Henry Cairn Hogbin	14,554	49.1
Majority			542	1.8
Turnout				73.1
	Communist gain from Liberal		Swing

General Election 6 December 1923: Battersea North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Henry Cairn Hogbin	12,527	50.4	+8.8
	Communist	Shapurji Dorabji Saklatvala	12,341	49.6	-0.9
Majority			186	0.8	9.7
Turnout				61.9
	Liberal gain from Communist		Swing	+4.9

General Election 15 November 1922: Battersea North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Communist	Shapurji Saklatvala	11,311	50.5
	National Liberal	Henry Cairn Hogbin	9,290	41.6
	Liberal	Vivian Claude Albu	1,756	7.9
Majority			2,021	9.5
Turnout
	Communist gain from Coalition Liberal		Swing

Election in the 1910s

General Election 14 December 1918:
constituency of Battersea North
Composed of the Battersea wards of Church, Latchmere, Nine Elms and Park
Electorate 38,552, Turnout 43.7%,

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Coalition Liberal	Richard Morris	11,231	66.6
	Labour	Charlotte Despard	5,634	33.4
Majority			5,597	33.2
	Coalition Liberal win (new seat)

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 1)