Twickenham_(UK_Parliament_constituency)

Twickenham (UK Parliament constituency)

Twickenham (UK Parliament constituency)

Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1918 onwards


Twickenham is a constituency in Greater London[n 1] represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Munira Wilson of the Liberal Democrats.[n 2]

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History

Hampton Court Palace

Since 1945, the boundaries of the seat have been similar to those of the abolished Municipal Borough of Twickenham.

From 1931 until 1983, Twickenham was a safe seat of the Conservative Party and from 1983 until 1997 a marginal seat for that party.

Liberal Democrat Vince Cable gained the seat during the 1997 landslide Conservative defeat and held it until 2015. The seat was one of very few in Britain that gave the Liberal Democrats a majority of votes in the 2005 and 2010 elections, being their sixth best performance nationally in 2010.[n 3] Cable was Secretary of State for Business from 2010 to 2015, but unexpectedly lost his seat to the Conservative candidate Tania Mathias in the 2015 general election during the nationwide collapse in the Liberal Democrat vote.

Cable regained the seat in the 2017 snap election by a 14.8% majority and an absolute majority at 52.8% of the vote; this was the highest vote percentage for the Liberal Democrats in any constituency nationally.[3]

The seat has in the 21st century had notably high turnouts. At the 2015 general election, it had the highest turnout in England and the fourth highest in the UK.[4] In 2017, turnout was 79.7%, the highest for any seat in the UK, ahead of Oxford West and Abingdon gained by the same party.[5][6] The seat of Twickenham has also been won by the same party as the neighbouring seat of Kingston and Surbiton in all seven elections they have been in (6 Lib Dem, 1 Conservative).

In December 2023, the Labour Party included the seat in its published list of 211 non-battleground seats, suggesting they did not see it as winnable.[7]

Boundaries

Map of current boundaries
Twickenham in Middlesex, 1918–45
Twickenham, 1945–50

1918–1945: The Urban Districts of Heston and Isleworth, and Twickenham.

1945: boundaries substantially changed – losing territory in the north to form Heston and Isleworth, gaining territory from Spelthorne to the south including Hampton, Teddington, Hampton Wick, Hampton Court Park and Bushy Park

1945–1974: The Municipal Borough of Twickenham.

1974–1983: The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames wards of Central Twickenham, East Twickenham, Hampton, Hampton Hill, Hampton Wick, Heathfield, South Twickenham, Teddington, West Twickenham, and Whitton.[8]

1983–1997: The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames wards of Central Twickenham, Hampton, Hampton Hill, Hampton Nursery, Hampton Wick, Heathfield, South Twickenham, Teddington, West Twickenham, and Whitton.[9]

1997–2010: Central Twickenham, East Twickenham, Hampton, Hampton Hill, Hampton Nursery, Hampton Wick, Heathfield, South Twickenham, Teddington, West Twickenham, and Whitton.[10]

2010–present: The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames wards of Fulwell and Hampton Hill, Hampton, Hampton North, Hampton Wick, Heathfield, St Margaret's and North Twickenham, South Twickenham, Teddington, Twickenham Riverside, West Twickenham, and Whitton.[11]

The seat covers the south western half of the London Borough of Richmond, that part of the borough on the north bank of the River Thames.[n 4] It chiefly contains the towns or London districts of Twickenham, Hampton, Teddington and Whitton. Smaller sub-localities by order of commercial activity are Hampton Hill, Hampton Wick, St Margarets, Fulwell, Strawberry Hill and Hampton Court hamlet proper.[n 5] Features includes Hampton Court Palace, Bushy Park (one of the Royal Parks of London), and the Rugby Football Union's national ground, Twickenham Stadium.

Proposed

Twickenham, 2023

Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, enacted by the Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023, the Whitton ward will be transferred to Brentford and Isleworth, in order to bring the electorate within the permitted range.[12]

History of boundaries

1918–1945

During this period the Hamptons (Hampton, Hampton Hill, Hampton Court and Hampton Wick) and Teddington were excluded from the seat, which instead contained two urban districts to the north of subsequent boundaries, Isleworth and Hounslow, an area at the time with key economic sectors of construction, brewing, warehousing and goods transportation. As such these areas had some support for the Labour Party, who in their best result in the seat, lost the 1929 by-election in the seat by 503 votes (1.6% of the vote).

1945–date

In 1945, the area saw as an unusual corollary to its shift southwards, the swing nationally, of +11.7% (Con-to-Lab) converted in the more strongly middle-class redefined seat to a major cut in the 24% Conservative majority [n 6] swinging −15.3% to a Liberal opponent, George Granville Slack. In February 1974 and from 1979 until seizing victory in 1997, the runner-up party became the Liberal Party or their successor, the Liberal Democrats and the ward boundaries became only slightly adjusted to reflect changes made in the borderlines made at the local level of government.

Constituency profile

As described by the boundaries, the area enjoys substantial parkland and Thameside landscapes, coupled with a variety of commuter train services to Central London including semi-fast services from Twickenham itself to London Waterloo.

Twickenham is the only constituency situated entirely within the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and, as such, is made up completely of middle-class suburbia, similar to the neighbouring constituencies of Kingston & Surbiton, Richmond Park (both in Greater London) and Esher & Walton in Surrey. Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 significantly lower in Twickenham than the national average of 3.8%, at 1.7% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.[13]

Members of Parliament

Map that gives each named seat and any constant electoral success for national (Westminster) elections for Middlesex, 1955 to 1974.

Elections

Results of UK House of Commons seat Twickenham since 1945 when substantially redrawn.

Elections in the 2020s

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Elections in the 2010s

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This was the second largest Lib Dem majority by percentage, after Bath and the largest by number. It was also their largest vote share at the 2019 general election.[18]

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Elections in the 2000s

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Elections in the 1990s

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Elections in the 1980s

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Elections in the 1970s

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Elections in the 1960s

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Elections in the 1950s

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Elections in the 1940s

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Elections in the 1930s

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Elections in the 1920s

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Joynson-Hicks
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Elections in the 1910s

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See also

Notes

  1. A borough constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer).
  2. As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years.
  3. By share of the vote, behind five seats: Orkney and Shetland, Westmoreland and Lonsdale, Bath, Yeovil, and Norfolk North
  4. However mostly further south as the river is on a north-south axis at this point
  5. An ill-defined but major neighbourhood of East Molesey often self-identifies as and ascribes to itself Hampton Court by virtue of its station and long standing sweep of shops of that name, across historic and actual boundaries, across the Thames in Surrey, this is not part of the Hampton Court hamlet mentioned.
  6. Also known as one-party swing

References

  1. "Electorate Figures – Boundary Commission for England". 2011 Electorate Figures. Boundary Commission for England. 4 March 2011. Archived from the original on 6 November 2010. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  2. "Twickenham election results 2019: Munira Wilson wins for Lib Dems". 13 December 2019. Archived from the original on 13 December 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  3. "GE2017 – Constituency results". Britain Elects (Google Docs). Archived from the original on 30 April 2020. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  4. "Turnout – General Elections Online". geo.digiminster. Archived from the original on 17 September 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  5. "GE2017: Marginal seats and turnout". House of Commons Library. 23 June 2017. Archived from the original on 27 April 2019. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  6. "Results of the 2017 general election". BBC News. Archived from the original on 31 May 2019. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  7. Belger, Tom (8 December 2023). "Labour selections: Full list of 211 'non-battleground' seats now open to applications". labourlist.org. Archived from the original on 9 December 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  8. "The Parliamentary Constituencies (Richmond upon Thames, Twickenham and Esher) Order 1971. SI 1971/2114". Statutory Instruments 1971. Part III Section 2. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1972. pp. 6234–6235.
  9. "The Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023". Schedule 1 Part 3 London region.
  10. "Unemployment claimants by constituency". The Guardian. 17 November 2010. Archived from the original on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  11. "Hulley selected in Twickenham for being "all-around impressive"". conservativehome. Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  12. "Munira Wilson reselected by Lib Dems for Twickenham". SWLondoner. Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  13. "Statement of Persons Nominated" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 February 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
  14. "Commons Briefing Paper 8749. General Election 2019: results and analysis" (PDF). London: House of Commons Library. 28 January 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 November 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  15. "Vince Cable is to run for parliament in snap election". The Independent. 18 April 2017. Archived from the original on 19 April 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  16. "Commons Briefing Paper 7979. General Election 2017: results and analysis" (PDF) (Second ed.). House of Commons Library. 29 January 2019 [7 April 2018]. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2019.
  17. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  18. "Election results for Twickenham, 7 May 2015". 7 May 2015. Archived from the original on 6 January 2018. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  19. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  20. Election Expenses. Parliament of the United Kingdom. 1980. p. 20. ISBN 0102374805.
  21. "1955 By Elections – part 1". 31 August 2009. Archived from the original on 31 August 2009.
  22. Craig, F. W. S. (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3 ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.

Sources

51.428°N 0.345°W / 51.428; -0.345


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