Islington East (UK Parliament constituency)

Islington East
Former Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
1885 (1885)–February 1974 (February 1974)
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Islington Central and Islington North
Created from	Finsbury

Islington East was a constituency which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885, until it was abolished for the February 1974 general election.

Islington East in the Metropolitan area, showing boundaries used from 1885 to 1918.

Islington East in the Parliamentary County of London, showing boundaries used from 1918 to 1950.

Islington East in the Parliamentary County of London, showing boundaries used from 1950 to 1974.

Boundaries

1885–1918

The seat was created by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 as one of four divisions of the new parliamentary borough of Islington. The parliamentary borough was coterminous with the civil parish of Islington and each of the four divisions consisted of a number of parish wards used for the election of vestrymen to the incorporated vestry, the local authority for the area.

The East Division consisted of two wards: Highbury and Canonbury.

1918–1970

Constituencies throughout Great Britain were reorganised by the Representation of the People Act 1918. In London, seats were realigned to the boundaries of the metropolitan boroughs that had been created in 1900. The Metropolitan Borough of Islington was divided into four constituencies with the Islington, East seat consisting of three wards as they existed in 1918: Canonbury, Highbury and Mildmay. At the next parliamentary redistribution, prior to the 1950 general election, the seat was unchanged.

The seat was last contested at the 1970 general election. By the time of the next election in 1974 new constituencies based on the London boroughs created in 1965 had been delineated. The London Borough of Islington was divided between three constituencies, with the area of the abolished East seat mostly falling in the new Islington Central constituency.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1885	Henry Bret Ince	Liberal
	1886	Isaac Cowley Lambert	Conservative
	1892	Sir Benjamin Cohen	Conservative
	1906	Sir George Heynes Radford	Liberal
	1917 by-election	Edward Smallwood	Liberal
	1918	Alfred Baldwin Raper	Coalition Conservative
	1922	Austin Uvedale Morgan Hudson	Conservative
	1923	Arthur Strettell Comyns Carr	Liberal
	1924	Robert Inigo Tasker	Conservative
	1929	Ethel Bentham	Labour
	1931 by-election	Elizabeth Leah Manning	Labour
	1931	Thelma Cazalet, later Cazalet-Keir	Conservative
	1945	Sir Eric Fletcher	Labour
	1970	John Grant	Labour
Feb 1974		constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 18 June 1970: constituency of Islington East Composed of the Islington wards of Canonbury, Highbury and Mildmay Electorate 43,705, Turnout 51.80 %,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Douglas Grant	13,980	61.75	+3.83
	Conservative	Richard Devonald-Lewis	8,660	38.25	+9.35
Majority			5,320	23.50	-5.52
Turnout			22,350	51.80	-5.26
	Labour hold

Elections in the 1960s

General Election 31 March 1966: constituency of Islington East Composed of the Islington wards of Canonbury, Highbury and Mildmay Electorate 45,546, Turnout 57.06 %,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Eric George Molyneux Fletcher	15,009	57.92	+5.44
	Conservative	J B W Holderness	7,490	28.90	+0.37
	Liberal	J Freedman	2,288	8.83	-2.56
	Independent Liberal	Alan E Lomas	1,127	4.35	-3.24
Majority			7,519	29.02	+5.07
Turnout			25,914	57.06	+0.5
	Labour hold

General Election 15 October 1964: constituency of Islington East Composed of the Islington wards of Canonbury, Highbury and Mildmay Electorate 47,349, Turnout 57.11%,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Eric George Molyneux Fletcher	14,192	52.48	-5.04
	Conservative	K C Burdon	7,715	28.53	-13.91
	Liberal	J Freedman	3,081	11.39	N/A
	Independent Liberal	Alan E Lomas	2,053	7.59	N/A
Majority			6,477	23.95	+8.82
Turnout				57.11	-6.38
	Labour hold

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 8 October 1959: constituency of Islington East Composed of the Islington wards of Canonbury, Highbury and Mildmay Electorate 48,613, Turnout 63.49%,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Eric George Molyneux Fletcher	17,776	57.56	-2.74
	Conservative	K C Burden	13,097	42.44	+2.74
Majority			4,669	15.13	-5.48
Turnout			30,683	63.49	-2.57
	Labour hold

General Election 26 May 1955: constituency of Islington East Composed of the Islington wards of Canonbury, Highbury and Mildmay Electorate 49,230, Turnout 66.06%,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Eric George Molyneux Fletcher	19,612	60.3
	Conservative	Geoffrey Finsberg	12,910	39.7
Majority			6,702	20.61
Turnout				66.06
	Labour hold

General Election 25 October 1951: constituency of Islington East Composed of the Islington wards of Canonbury, Highbury and Mildmay Electorate 50,997, Turnout 78.23%,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Eric George Molyneux Fletcher	23,896	59.9
	Conservative	A K B Wilmot	16,000	40.1
Majority			7,896	19.79
Turnout				78.23
	Labour hold

General Election 23 February 1950: constituency of Islington East Composed of the Islington wards of Canonbury, Highbury and Mildmay Electorate 50,644, Turnout 79.30%,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Eric George Molyneux Fletcher	22,477	55.96
	Conservative	K Wilmot	14,385	35.82
	Liberal	T H C Billson	3,301	8.22
Majority			8,062	20.15
Turnout				79.30
	Labour hold

Election in the 1940s

General Election 5 to 19 July 1945: constituency of Islington East Composed of the Islington wards of Canonbury, Highbury and Mildmay Electorate , Turnout %,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Eric Fletcher	18,936	65.5	+25.7
	Conservative	Thelma Cazalet-Keir	9,960	34.5	−18.0
Majority			14,110	35.0
Turnout			28,896	66.2	+6.8
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	+22.4

Election in the 1930s

General Election 14 November 1935: constituency of Islington East Composed of the Islington wards of Canonbury, Highbury and Mildmay Electorate , Turnout %,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Thelma Cazalet	18,248	52.5	−15.0
	Labour	G.D. Jones	13,810	39.8	+7.3
	Liberal	C.H. Blackburn	2,670	7.7	N/A
Majority			4,438	12.7	−22.3
Turnout			34,728	57.8	−7.6
	Conservative hold		Swing	−11.2

General Election 27 October 1931: constituency of Islington East Composed of the Islington wards of Canonbury, Highbury and Mildmay Electorate , Turnout %,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Thelma Cazalet	27,221	67.5	+44.0
	Labour	Leah Manning	13,111	32.5	−2.2
Majority			14,110	35.0
Turnout			40,332	65.4	+15.4
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+23.1

Islington East by-election, 19th February 1931
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Leah Manning	10,591	34.7	−3.3
	Empire Crusade	Alfred Critchley	8,314	27.2	N/A
	Conservative	Thelma Cazalet	7,182	23.5	−10.6
	Liberal	Horace Crawfurd	4,450	14.6	−13.3
Majority			2,277	7.5	+3.6
Turnout				50.0	−16.4
	Labour hold		Swing

Election in the 1920s

General Election 30 May 1929: constituency of Islington East Composed of the Islington wards of Canonbury, Highbury and Mildmay Electorate , Turnout %,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Dr. Ethel Bentham	15199
	Conservative	Maj. Robert Tasker	13641
	Liberal	Edgar Charles Middleton	11136
Majority
Turnout

General Election 29 October 1924: constituency of Islington East Composed of the Islington wards of Canonbury, Highbury and Mildmay Electorate , Turnout %,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour
	Conservative
	Liberal
Majority
Turnout

General Election 6 December 1923: constituency of Islington East Composed of the Islington wards of Canonbury, Highbury and Mildmay Electorate 44,402 Turnout %,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Arthur Strettell Comyns-Carr	10,670
	Conservative	Capt. Austin Hudson	9,038
	Labour	Dr. Ethel Bentham	6,941
Majority
Turnout

General Election 15 November 1922: constituency of Islington East Composed of the Islington wards of Canonbury, Highbury and Mildmay Electorate , Turnout %,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour
	Conservative
	Liberal
Majority
Turnout

Election in the 1910s

General Election 14 December 1918: constituency of Islington East Composed of the Islington wards of Canonbury, Highbury and Mildmay Electorate 37,078, Turnout %,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alfred Baldwin-Raper	9,352
	Liberal	Edward Smallwood	5,968
	Labour	Arthur John Lewer	3,122
	National Party	Charles Edward Copplestone	575
	Independent	Frederick Alfred Wickhart	147
Majority			3,384
Turnout
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing

By-election: 23 October 1917
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Edward Smallwood	2,709	57.0	6.3
	Independent	Alfred Baker	1,532	32.2
	National Party	Edmund Broughton Barnard	513	10.8
Majority			1,177
Turnout			12,874	36.9
	Liberal hold		Swing

December 1910 General Election: Islington, East
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Heynes Radford	4,503	50.7	-1.0
	Conservative	Philip Edward Pilditch	4,378	49.3	1.0
Majority			125
Turnout			11,118	79.9
	Liberal hold		Swing

January 1910 General Election: Islington, East
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Heynes Radford	5,001	51.7	-3.0
	Conservative	J.H.T. Keeves	4,671	48.3	3.0
Majority			330
Turnout			11,118	87.0
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1900s

1906 General Election: Islington, East
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Heynes Radford	4477	54.7	16.6
	Conservative	Sir Benjamin Louis Cohen, Bt.	3710	45.3	-16.6
Majority			767
Turnout			10,786	75.9
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing

1900 General Election: Islington, East
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Benjamin Louis Cohen	4,205	61.9	3.8
	Liberal	Andrew Mitchell Torrance	2,586	38.1	-3.8
Majority			1,619
Turnout			10,395	65.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1890s

1895 General Election: Islington, East
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Benjamin Louis Cohen	4,383	58.1	5.0
	Liberal	Thomas McKinnon Wood	3,159	41.9	-5.0
Majority			1,224
Turnout			10,191	74.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

1892 General Election: Islington, East
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Benjamin Louis Cohen	3,975	53.1	-8.4
	Liberal	P.W. Bunting	3,510	46.9	8.4
Majority			465
Turnout			9,872	75.8
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1880s

1886 General Election: Islington, East
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Isaac Cowley Lambert	3,732	61.5	11.8
	Liberal	Henry Bret Ince	2,336	38.5	-11.8
Majority			1,396
Turnout			8,092	75.0
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing

1885 General Election: Islington, East
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Henry Bret Ince	3,296	50.3
	Conservative	Isaac Cowley Lambert	3,262	49.7
Majority			34
Turnout			8,092	81.0
	Liberal gain from new seat		Swing

See also

• Islington East by-election, 1931
• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Islington

References

• British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1974)
• Debrett’s Illustrated Heraldic and Biographical House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1886
• Debrett’s House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1901
• Debrett’s House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1918

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "I"