Croydon Central (UK Parliament constituency)

Croydon Central
Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Croydon Central in Greater London.
County	Greater London
Electorate	76,980 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	1974 (1974)
Member of Parliament	Gavin Barwell (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	Croydon South
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	London

Croydon Central is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The current MP is Conservative Gavin Barwell, who won by 2,969 votes in May 2010.

Constituency profile

Croydon Central covers a wedge of the London Borough of Croydon to the east of central Croydon. The northern parts are characterised by terraced houses and urban areas, with small council estates. Labour gains much of its strength from these ethnically-mixed wards of Addiscombe and Woodside, and similar parts of Fairfield and Ashburton. The southern area, largely Conservative, consists of suburban semi-detached houses, populated by commuters, surrounded by golf courses and parkland. The wards of Shirley, Heathfield and parts of Ashburton give large Conservative votes. In the south east corner, there is a large former council estate, New Addington, with two electoral wards for the more than 10,000 rather isolated residents. The estate is largely white and there have been strong British National Party showings, although Labour has traditionally won the bulk of the votes on the estate.

Most of the office blocks and shopping centres of Croydon town centre, as well as the mainline railway stations are within this seat.

History

The constituency that preceded Croydon Central in this area, Croydon South (not to be confused with the current Croydon South constituency), had twice seen Croydon's only Labour MPs before the 1990s. David Rees-Williams had held the seat from the 1945 Labour landslide until unfavourable boundary changes in 1950. David Winnick won the seat in 1966 before losing in 1970 (he has since been MP for the much safer seat of Walsall North in Staffordshire since 1979). Otherwise the seat had been firm Conservative territory.

Historically, Labour's strength in the area had been on the council estates, particularly New Addington. However, there were important demographic changes across Croydon that saw greater numbers of ethnic minorities and residents of inner London move to Croydon from the 1970s onwards, making the area, especially north west Croydon, more favourable for Labour.

In 1997, Croydon's seats were reduced from four to three and the displaced Conservative Members had to face one another for the right to stand in the new Croydon Central seat (Croydon North by then a Labour-held seat). The MP for Croydon North East, David Congdon, beat off Sir Paul Beresford, the MP for the former Croydon Central seat. However, three years after Labour had taken control of Croydon Council, Labour's Geraint Davies saw off Congdon with a majority of 4,000. He held the seat with a similar majority in 2001 but lost by just 75 votes to Conservative Andrew Pelling in 2005, with the Liberal Democrats and Green Party gaining some 7,000 votes between them.

Boundaries

Central Croydon's main shopping area

The new wards and boundaries of the Croydon Central Constituency

Croydon Central covers the central and eastern parts of the London Borough of Croydon, one of the Borough's three seats. It is bordered by Croydon North and Croydon South, as well as the Beckenham constituency to the east. It is made up of eight electoral wards from the borough:

• Addiscombe, Ashburton, Fairfield, Fieldway, Heathfield, New Addington, Shirley and Woodside

The present seat was created for the 1997 general election from most of the old Croydon Central constituency (losing Waddon to the new Croydon South) and part of the old Croydon North East constituencies. It covers an area that was Croydon South constituency until 1974 when part of East Surrey was incorporated into a new Croydon South constituency, following the creation of the London Borough of Croydon in 1965.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in South London, the Boundary Commission for England made minor changes to Croydon Central. Part of the South Norwood ward was transferred to the Croydon North constituency, while parts of the Croham, Selsdon and Ballards, and Waddon wards were transferred to Croydon South. These boundaries were first contested in 2010.

If the changes had been implemented at the 2005 General Election the seat was likely to have been retained by Labour. In the boundary changes over 3,000 electors moved into Croydon South and 2,500 electors into Croydon North.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	February 1974	John Moore	Conservative
	1992	Sir Paul Beresford	Conservative
	1997	Geraint Davies	Labour
	2005	Andrew Pelling	Conservative
	2007		Independent
	2010	Gavin Barwell	Conservative

Election results

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2010: Croydon Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gavin Barwell	19,657	39.5	-0.9
	Labour Co-op	Gerry Ryan	16,688	33.5	-7.6
	Liberal Democrat	Peter Lambell	6,553	13.2	+0.4
	Independent	Andrew Pelling	3,239	6.5	N/A
	BNP	Cliff le May	1,448	2.9	N/A
	UKIP	Ralph Atkinson	997	2.0	-0.2
	Green	Bernice Golberg	581	1.2	-1.0
	Christian	James Gitau	264	0.5	N/A
	Monster Raving Loony	John Cartwright	192	0.4	+0.0
	Independent	Michael Castle	138	0.3	N/A
Majority			2,969	6.0
Turnout			49,757	63.1	+3.0
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+3.3

The comparison is with the notional 2005 result for the new boundaries which made Croydon Central a Labour defence.

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Croydon Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Andrew Pelling	19,974	40.8	+2.3
	Labour	Geraint Davies	19,899	40.6	−6.6
	Liberal Democrat	Jeremy Hargreaves	6,384	13.0	+1.8
	UKIP	Ian Edwards	1,066	2.2	+1.0
	Green	Bernice Golberg	1,036	2.1	N/A
	Veritas	Marianne Bowness	304	0.6	N/A
	Monster Raving Loony	John Cartwright	193	0.4	–0.5
	The People's Choice! Exclusively For All	Janet Stears	101	0.2	N/A
Majority			75	0.2
Turnout			48,957	60.6	+1.5
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+4.4

General Election 2001: Croydon Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Geraint Davies	21,643	47.2	+1.6
	Conservative	David Congdon	17,659	38.5	–0.1
	Liberal Democrat	Paul Booth	5,156	11.2	+0.4
	UKIP	James Feisenberger	545	1.2	+0.7
	BNP	Linda Miller	449	1.0	N/A
	Monster Raving Loony	John Cartwright	408	0.9	N/A
Majority			3,984	8.7
Turnout			45,860	59.1	–10.5
	Labour hold		Swing	+0.8

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Croydon Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Geraint Davies	25,432	45.6	+10.1
	Conservative	David Congdon	21,535	38.6	-16.8
	Liberal Democrat	G Schlich	6,061	10.9	-2.4
	Referendum Party	C Cook	1,886	3.3
	Green	M Barnsley	595	1.1
	UKIP	J Woollcut	290	0.5
Majority			3,897	7.0	-8.2
Turnout			55,799	69.6	-1.9
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	+15.5%

General Election 1992: Croydon Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Paul Beresford	22,168	55.4	-1.2
	Labour	GR Davies	12,518	31.3	+6.9
	Liberal Democrat	Miss DJ Richardson	5,342	13.3	-5.7
Majority			9,650	24.1	-8.2
Turnout			40,028	71.5	+1.0
	Conservative hold		Swing	-4.1

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London