Kensington (UK Parliament constituency)

Kensington
Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Kensington in Greater London.
County	Greater London
Electorate	62,784 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	2010 (2010)
Member of Parliament	Sir Malcolm Rifkind (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	Kensington and Chelsea
1974 (1974)–1997 (1997)
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Kensington and Chelsea
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	London

Kensington is a parliamentary constituency in the Parliament of the United Kingdom in west London, comprising the northern and central parts of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around Kensington. It was first created for the February 1974 general election and abolished for the 1997 general election when it was partly replaced by the new constituencies of Kensington and Chelsea & Regent's Park and Kensington North.

The constituency was re-created by the Boundary Commission for England at the 2010 general election from parts of the aforementioned constituencies.

Following their Fifth Periodic Review of parliamentary representation in North London, the Boundary Commission have recreated the Kensington seat using the following electoral wards:

• Abingdon, Brompton, Campden, Colville, Courtfield, Earls Court, Golborne, Holland, Norland, Notting Barns, Pembridge, Queen's Gate, and St Charles.

The remaining electoral wards of Cremorne, Hans Town, Redcliffe, Royal Hospital, and Stanley are used in the cross-borough creation of Chelsea and Fulham.

Constituency profile

Kensington is a residential seat west of central London. One of the most solidly Conservative seats in the country, the housing is largely expensive gardens, squares and Georgian terraces. Kensington High Street is an upmarket shopping hub, Kensington Palace is the residence of several members of the Royal Family, and Kensington Palace Gardens is the site of many embassies and a few private residences for the super-rich. South Kensington is the museum district, home to the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert, and is somewhat more cosmopolitan.

As well as Kensington itself the seat covers Earls Court, Brompton, Holland Park and Notting Hill. Earls Court is far more run-down and cheaper than its richer neighbour and while it is undergoing rapid gentrification and includes its own areas for the super-rich, there are still cheap areas of run-down hotels and bedsits around Earls Court Exhibition Centre, which straddles the boundary between this constituency and the Hammersmith seat. Notting Hill is an affluent and trendy area which hosts the Notting Hill carnival, led by the area's vibrant Afro-Caribbean community. It is a highly cosmopolitan area, but having fallen on hard times in the twentieth century and become associated with dingy flats and multiple-occupancy homes it has undergone rapid gentrification. These days while the old Victorian private houses are sought after and extortionately expensive, there is much social housing and tower blocks and there remains a large ethnic population and areas of deprivation in North Kensington and Ladbroke Grove.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	Feb 1974	Sir Brandon Rhys-Williams	Conservative
	1988 by-election	Dudley Fishburn	Conservative
1997		constituency abolished: see Kensington and Chelsea
	2010	Sir Malcolm Rifkind	Conservative

Election results

General Election 2010: Kensington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Malcom Rifkind	17,595	50.1	+6.2
	Labour	Sam Gurney	8,979	25.5	−4.1
	Liberal Democrat	Robin Meltzer	6,872	19.6	−0.6
	UKIP	Caroline Pearson	754	2.1	+1.0
	Green	Melan Ebrahimi-Fardouée	753	2.1	−2.4
	Alliance for Green Socialism	Eddie Adams	197	0.6	+0.2
Majority			8,616	24.5
Turnout			35,150	53.3	+1.5
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1992: Kensington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Dudley Fishburn	15,540	50.3	+2.8
	Labour	P. A. Holmes	11,992	38.8	+5.6
	Liberal Democrat	C.K. Shirley	2,770	9.0	−8.3
	Green	A. Burlingham-Johnson	415	1.3	−1.4
	Natural Law	A. J. W. Hardy	90	0.3	N/A
	ALP	A. Bulloch	71	0.2	N/A
Majority			3,548	11.5
Turnout			30,878
	Conservative hold		Swing	−1.4

1987 General Election: Kensington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Brandon Rhys-Williams	14,818	47.51
	Labour	B. T. Bousquet	10,371	33.25
	SDP–Liberal Alliance	William Goodhart	5,379	17.25
	Green	R. Shorter	528	1.69
	Humanist	L. Carrick	65	0.21
	PIP	M. Hughes	30	0.10
Majority			4,447	14.26
Turnout			31,191	64.70
	Conservative hold		Swing

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London