Finchley and Golders Green (UK Parliament constituency)

Finchley and Golders Green
Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Finchley and Golders Green in Greater London.
County	Greater London
Electorate	71,595 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	1997 (1997)
Member of Parliament	Mike Freer (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	Finchley, Hendon South
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	London

Finchley and Golders Green is a 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.

Boundaries

The constituency covers Finchley, Golders Green, Childs Hill and Hampstead Garden Suburb in the London Borough of Barnet. It was created in 1997 when the old constituency of Finchley absorbed most of the old constituency of Hendon South and lost some of its wards to the Chipping Barnet seat. The changes removed Friern Barnet from the constituency and added Golders Green, Childs Hill and Hampstead Garden Suburb.

Finchley and Golders Green is currently made up of seven electoral wards from the London Borough of Barnet:

• Childs Hill, East Finchley, Finchley Church End, Garden Suburb, Golders Green, West Finchley, and Woodhouse.

2007 Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation, and as a consequence of changes to ward boundaries, the Boundary Commission for England recommended in their boundary report published in 2007 that parts of Golders Green ward and Finchley Church End ward be transferred to Finchley & Golders Green from the constituency of Hendon; that part of Woodhouse ward be transferred from Chipping Barnet; and that parts of Mill Hill ward and Coppetts ward be transferred to Hendon and Chipping Barnet respectively. These changes took effect at the 2010 general election.

History

The area was famous for being represented by former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher between 1959 and her retirement from the House of Commons in 1992; although boundary changes meant that she never again attained the large majority of 1959, and was only narrowly re-elected in 1974, she was nonetheless returned by comfortable (c. 9,000) majorities at General Elections throughout the 1980s.

Members of Parliament

Event		Member	Party
	1997	Dr Rudi Vis	Labour
	2010	Mike Freer	Conservative

According to Rallings and Thrasher, the boundary changes which came into force for the general election of 2010 meant that this seat notionally already had a Conservative majority, albeit a very small one.

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2010: Finchley and Golders Green
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Mike Freer	21,688	46.0	+7.2
	Labour	Alison Moore	15,879	33.7	−6.8
	Liberal Democrat	Laura Edge	8,036	17.0	+0.2
	UKIP	Susan Cummins	817	1.7	+0.7
	Green	Donald Lyven	737	1.6	−1.1
Majority			5,809	12.3	+14.0
Turnout			47,157	61.1
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+7.0

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Finchley and Golders Green
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Rudi Vis	17,487	40.5	−5.8
	Conservative	Andrew Mennear	16,746	38.8	+1.0
	Liberal Democrat	Sue Garden	7,282	16.9	+4.8
	Green	Noel Lynch	1,136	2.6	−0.6
	UKIP	Jeremy Jacobs	453	1.0	+0.2
	Rainbow Dream Ticket	Rainbow George Weiss	110	0.3	N/A
Majority			741	1.7
Turnout			43,214	61.9	+4.6
	Labour hold		Swing	−3.4

General Election 2001: Finchley and Golders Green
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Rudi Vis	20,205	46.3	+0.2
	Conservative	John Marshall	16,489	37.8	-2.0
	Liberal Democrat	Sarah Teather	5,266	12.1	+0.8
	Green	Miranda Dunn	1,385	3.2	+2.0
	UKIP	John de Roeck	330	0.8	+0.3
Majority			3,716	8.5
Turnout			43,675	57.3	-12.2
	Labour hold		Swing	+1.05

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Finchley and Golders Green
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Rudi Vis	23,180	46.1	+14.0
	Conservative	John Marshall	19,991	39.7	−13.5
	Liberal Democrat	Jonathan Davies	5,670	11.3	−1.2
	Referendum Party	G. Shaw	684	1.4	N/A
	Green	Ashley Gunstock	576	1.1	−0.3
	UKIP	D. Barraclough	205	0.4	N/A
Majority			3,189	6.4	N/A
Turnout				69.7	−7.9
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	+13.7

General Election 1992: Finchley and Golders Green (notional)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative		20,890	53.2
	Labour		12,616	32.1
	Liberal Democrat		4,915	12.5
	Green		564	1.4
	Natural Law		182	0.5
	Loony		130	0.3
Majority			8,274	21.1
Turnout			39,297	77.6
	Conservative hold		Swing

See also

• Finchley (UK Parliament constituency), approximate predecessor
• Hendon South (UK Parliament constituency), half of which was merged with Finchley
• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London

Notes and references

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Finchley	UK Parliament constituency 1997 – present	Incumbent
Preceded by Hendon South