Hornchurch (UK Parliament constituency)

Hornchurch
Former Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Hornchurch in Greater London for the 2005 general election.
County	Greater London
1945 (1945)–2010 (2010)
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Hornchurch and Upminster, Dagenham and Rainham
Created from	Romford

Hornchurch was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. At the 2010 general election parts formed the new seats of Hornchurch and Upminster; and Dagenham and Rainham.

Boundaries

Hornchurch in Essex, showing boundaries used from 1945 to 1950.

The seat encompassed Hornchurch, Rainham, Elm Park and the village of Wennington. It bordered on the other London constituencies of Romford and Upminster and like them, was part of the London Borough of Havering.

History

The south of the constituency has been seen as a site for building large entertainment centres on Rainham's large marshland area, and was viewed as a potential site for the European Disneyland project, although it was considered much less suitable than the current position near Paris. There have been plans to build a casino but permission is yet to be granted.

Hornchurch is a predominantly suburban and Conservative-voting area, but the seat is seen as a swing seat due to Rainham and Elm Park's working class voters and because the wealthiest Emerson Park area of Hornchurch does not form part of the constituency, instead forming part of Upminster constituency.

The constituency was abolished for the 2010 election. The areas of the constituency covered by the Elm Park, South Hornchurch, and Rainham and Wennington wards in the London Borough of Havering were merged with Dagenham to form a cross-borough Dagenham and Rainham constituency. Hacton and St Andrews wards in Hornchurch merged with Upminster to form Hornchurch and Upminster. Hylands ward in Hornchurch merged with Romford. Prior to the change in boundaries the new seats were predicted to be marginal Labour and safe Conservative respectively if they followed the voting patterns of the previous Dagenham, Upminster and Romford constituencies.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1945	Geoffrey Bing	Labour
	1955	Godfrey Lagden	Conservative
	1966	Alan Lee Williams	Labour
	1970	John Loveridge	Conservative
	Feb 1974	Alan Lee Williams	Labour
	1979	Robin Squire	Conservative
	1997	John Cryer	Labour
	2005	James Brokenshire	Conservative
	2010	constituency abolished: see Hornchurch and Upminster, Dagenham and Rainham & Romford

Elections

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Hornchurch
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Brokenshire	16,355	42.8	+0.5
	Labour	John Cryer	15,875	41.6	–4.8
	Liberal Democrat	Nat Green	2,894	7.6	–0.6
	BNP	Ian Moore	1,313	3.4	+3.4
	UKIP	Laurence Webb	1,033	2.7	+0.2
	Residents	Malvin Brown	395	1.0	+1.0
	Third Way	Graham Williamson	304	0.8	+0.3
Majority			480	1.3
Turnout			38,169	63.5	+5.6
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+2.6

General Election 2001: Hornchurch
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Cryer	16,514	46.4	–3.8
	Conservative	Robin Squire	15,032	42.3	+5.0
	Liberal Democrat	Sarah Lea	2,928	8.2	+0.4
	UKIP	Lawrence Webb	893	2.5	N/A
	Third Way	David Durant	190	0.5	N/A
Majority			1,482	4.1
Turnout			35,557	58.3	–14.5
	Labour hold		Swing	–4.4

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1992: Hornchurch
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robin Squire	25,817	53.5	+2.3
	Labour	Miss LARG Cooper	16,652	34.5	+6.1
	Liberal Democrat	BJ Oddy	5,366	11.1	−9.3
	Independent Ind SD	TF Matthews	453	0.9	+0.9
Majority			9,165	19.0	−3.8
Turnout			48,288	79.8	+4.5
	Conservative hold		Swing	−1.9

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London