Beckenham (UK Parliament constituency)

Beckenham is a parliamentary constituency

United Kingdom constituencies

In the United Kingdom , each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one or more members to a parliament or assembly.Within the United Kingdom there are now five bodies with members elected by constituencies:...

represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

. It elects one Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

(MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Constituency profile

The northernmost third of the constituency, around Penge

Penge

Penge is a suburb of London in the London Borough of Bromley. It is located south east of Charing Cross.-History:Penge was once a small town, which was recorded under the name Penceat in a Saxon deed dating from 957...

and Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace, London

Crystal Palace is a residential area in south London, England named from the former local landmark, The Crystal Palace, which occupied the area from 1854 to 1936. The area is located approximately 8 miles south east of Charing Cross, and offers impressive views over the capital...

, can be categorised as being similar in character to neighbouring Lewisham

Lewisham

Lewisham is a district in South London, England, located in the London Borough of Lewisham. It is situated south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...

and north Croydon

Croydon

Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...

, having an inner-city feel about it and many ethnic minority residents. This part of the constituency votes strongly for the Liberal Democrats, with Labour also competitive.

The remaining two thirds of the constituency consists of leafy Bromley

Bromley

Bromley is a large suburban town in south east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Bromley. It was historically a market town, and prior to 1963 was in the county of Kent and formed the administrative centre of the Municipal Borough of Bromley...

suburbia, also taking in the town of Beckenham

Beckenham

Beckenham is a town in the London Borough of Bromley, England. It is located 8.4 miles south east of Charing Cross and 1.75 miles west of Bromley town...

itself. This area votes 60-70% for the Conservatives and is the reason why the constituency has been safely Conservative even in disastrous years for the party such as 1997 and 2001.

The addition, from the Bromley and Chislehurst seat, of Bromley Common and Keston ward, as well as that part of Hayes

Hayes, Bromley

Hayes is a place in the London Borough of Bromley, south-east London, England. It has two main areas of activity: the ancient village and suburban Hayes.-The ancient village of Nimrods :...

& Coney Hall ward that lay outside the constituency before the boundary review, and the removal of the Penge

Penge

and Cator, Clockhouse and Crystal Palace wards, were predicted to make Beckenham the safest Conservative seat in the country.

History

Beckenham has never elected anyone other than a Conservative as its MP in modern times. It is a safe Conservative seat because there is a solid core of Conservative voters in the suburban parts of the constituency and the opposition is somewhat divided between Labour and Lib Dem. Unlike neighbouring Orpington

Orpington (UK Parliament constituency)

Orpington is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-History:...

constituency, a strong Lib Dem challenge could never succeed by squeezing out Labour votes here because of the presence of so many traditional Labour voters in Penge, which are quite inner-London in character.

The closest the Conservatives have ever come to losing this seat was at a by-election in November 1997

Beckenham by-election, 1997

A by-election in Beckenham, England, was called in 1997 when the sitting Member of Parliament, Piers Merchant , resigned from Parliament on 21 October 1997...

, at the height of Tony Blair

Tony Blair

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...

's 'honeymoon period' as Prime Minister, following the resignation of the previous MP Piers Merchant

Piers Merchant

Piers Rolf Garfield Merchant was a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne Central from 1983 to 1987, and then MP for Beckenham from 1992 until he resigned in October 1997 following a scandal.- Education :He was educated at Nottingham High...

in a sex scandal. Even then, the former MP for Hastings Jacqui Lait managed to hold on to the seat for the Conservatives by just over 1,000 votes.

Between 1957 and 1992 the long-serving MP for Beckenham was Sir Philip Goodhart

Philip Goodhart

Sir Philip Carter Goodhart is a British Conservative politician, the son of Arthur Lehman Goodhart.Goodhart contested Consett in 1950 whilst still a student at Trinity College, Cambridge....

, who was soon discovered by Mrs Thatcher to be a 'wet' and consequently his career as a junior minister came to a quick end early in her premiership. Goodhart is best known for his book on the workings of the Conservative MPs' 1922 Committee, and for his brother Charles, who was a famous economics professor at LSE

London School of Economics

The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

and sat for some time on the Bank of England

Bank of England

The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...

's monetary policy committee.

Before Sir Philip Goodhart, the former Conservative Chief Whip

Chief Whip

The Chief Whip is a political office in some legislatures assigned to an elected member whose task is to administer the whipping system that ensures that members of the party attend and vote as the party leadership desires.-The Whips Office:...

Patrick Buchan-Hepburn represented Beckenham in Parliament.

Boundaries

Beckenham constituency covers the north-western part of the London Borough of Bromley

London Borough of Bromley

The London Borough of Bromley is a London borough of south east London, England and forms part of Outer London. The principal town in the borough is Bromley.-Geography:...

. Since 2010 it is made up of six electoral wards from the borough:

Bromley Common and Keston, Copers Cope, Hayes and Coney Hall, Kelsey and Eden Park, Shortlands, and West Wickham.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in South London

South London

South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...

, the Boundary Commission for England made revisions to the existing Beckenham constituency. Clock House ward, Crystal Palace ward, and Penge and Cator ward were transferred from Beckenham to help create the new constituency of Lewisham West and Penge

Lewisham West and Penge (UK Parliament constituency)

Lewisham West and Penge is a cross-border constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

. Parts of Bromley Common and Keston ward, Hayes and Coney Hall ward, and Shortlands ward were transferred to Beckenham from Bromley and Chislehurst. A small part of Bromley Common and Keston ward was transferred to Beckenham from Orpington

Orpington (UK Parliament constituency)

and a tiny part of Bromley Town ward was transferred from Beckenham to Bromley and Chislehurst.

Historic boundaries

1983-1997: The London Borough of Bromley wards of Anerley, Clock House, Copers Cope, Eden Park, Kelsey Park, Lawrie Park and Kent House, Penge, and Shortlands.

1997-2002: The London Borough of Bromley wards of Anerley, Clock House, Copers Cope, Eden Park, Kelsey Park, Lawrie Park and Kent House, Penge, Shortlands, West Wickham North, and West Wickham South. The local government ward boundaries were then reviewed with effect from May 2002.

2002-2010: The London Borough of Bromley wards of Bromley Town (part), Clock House, Copers Cope, Crystal Palace, Hayes and Coney Hall (part), Kelsey and Eden Park, Penge, Shortlands and West Wickham.

Members of Parliament

	Member	Party
1950 United Kingdom general election, 1950 The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...	Patrick Buchan-Hepburn	Conservative Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
1957 by-election	Sir Philip Goodhart Philip Goodhart Sir Philip Carter Goodhart is a British Conservative politician, the son of Arthur Lehman Goodhart.Goodhart contested Consett in 1950 whilst still a student at Trinity College, Cambridge....	Conservative Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
1992 United Kingdom general election, 1992 The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...	Piers Merchant Piers Merchant Piers Rolf Garfield Merchant was a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne Central from 1983 to 1987, and then MP for Beckenham from 1992 until he resigned in October 1997 following a scandal.- Education :He was educated at Nottingham High...	Conservative Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
1997 by-election Beckenham by-election, 1997 A by-election in Beckenham, England, was called in 1997 when the sitting Member of Parliament, Piers Merchant , resigned from Parliament on 21 October 1997...	Jacqui Lait Jacqui Lait Jacqueline Anne "Jacqui" Lait is a British Conservative Party politician and former Member of Parliament for Beckenham.-Early life:...	Conservative Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
2010	Bob Stewart Bob Stewart (British Army officer) Colonel Robert Alexander "Bob" Stewart DSO is a former British Army officer, former United Nations commander in Bosnia, commentator, author, public speaker and Conservative Party politician...	Conservative Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

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