Harrow West (UK Parliament constituency)

Harrow West
Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Harrow West in Greater London.
County	Greater London
Electorate	69,135 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	1945 (1945)
Member of Parliament	Gareth Thomas (Labour Co-op)
Number of members	One
Created from	Harrow and Hendon
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	London

Harrow West constituency within the parliamentary county of Middlesex, showing boundaries used from 1945-50.

Harrow West 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 was created for the first time at the 1945 General Election when the Harrow constituency was split into new seats of Harrow East and Harrow West. It was reduced in size for the 1950 General Election when a third Harrow seat, Harrow Central, was created. The 1983 General Election saw Harrow reduced back to two seats, resulting in Harrow West gaining parts of the abolished Harrow Central.

Unlike Harrow East, it had always been won by the Conservative party until Labour's landslide in 1997. The swing of 17.5% was the eighth highest swing in that election, and it was the safest Conservative seat to be lost to Labour. The constituency produced another better than average result for Labour in 2001 with a swing from Conservative to Labour of 5.4%, a pro-Labour swing bettered in only four seats.

The area is known for the famous Harrow School and also includes Harrow town centre. Labour lost the neighbouring Harrow East in 2010, but managed to hold on in this seat.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in North London, the Boundary Commission for England have created a modified Harrow West constituency to deal with population changes. The upmarket area of Pinner has been moved to a new constituency called Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, making Harrow West a stronger Labour seat at the expense of the Conservatives than in 2005.

The 9 electoral wards used in the modified Harrow West constituency are:

• Greenhill, Harrow on the Hill, Headstone North, Headstone South, Marlborough, Rayners Lane, Roxbourne, Roxeth and West Harrow

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1945	Norman Bower	Conservative
	1951	Sir Albert Braithwaite	Conservative
	1960 by-election	Sir John Page	Conservative
	1987	Robert Hughes	Conservative
	1997	Gareth Thomas	Labour, then Labour Co-operative

Election results

General Election 2010: Harrow West
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gareth Thomas	20,111	43.6	−5.0
	Conservative	Rachel Joyce	16,968	36.8	+6.4
	Liberal Democrat	Christopher Noyce	7,458	16.2	−2.5
	UKIP	Herbert Crossman	954	2.1	+0.8
	Green	Rowan Langley	625	1.4	N/A
Majority			3,143	6.8
Turnout			46,116	67.6	+3.2
	Labour hold		Swing	−5.7

General Election 2005: Harrow West
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	Gareth Thomas	20,298	42.5	−7.1
	Conservative	Mike Freer	18,270	38.3	+1.9
	Liberal Democrat	Christopher Noyce	8,188	17.1	+4.2
	UKIP	Janice Cronin	576	1.2	+0.1
	Independent	Berjis Daver	427	0.9	N/A
Majority			2,028	4.2
Turnout			47,759	64.3	+1.3
	Labour Co-op hold		Swing	−4.5

General Election 2001: Harrow West
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gareth Thomas	23,142	49.6	+8.1
	Conservative	Daniel Finkelstein	16,986	36.4	-2.8
	Liberal Democrat	Chris Noyce	5,995	12.9	-2.6
	UKIP	Peter Kefford	525	1.1	N/A
Majority			6,156	13.2
Turnout			46,648	63.0	-9.8
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1997: Harrow West
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	Gareth Thomas	21,811	41.5	+19.0
	Conservative	Robert Hughes	20,571	39.2	−16.0
	Liberal Democrat	Pash Nandhra	8,127	15.5	−4.7
	Referendum Party	H Crossman	1997	3.8	+3.8
Majority			1,240	2.3
Turnout				72.8
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	17.5

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London