Tooting (UK Parliament constituency)

Tooting
Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Tooting in Greater London.
County	Greater London
Electorate	72,707 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	1974 (1974)
Member of Parliament	Sadiq Khan (Labour)
Number of members	One
Created from	Battersea South Wandsworth Central Streatham
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	London

Tooting is a parliamentary 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

Tooting is the southern third of the London Borough of Wandsworth. As well as Tooting itself, it also includes the districts of Earlsfield, Furzedown and Streatham Park and part of Balham (that part broadly west of the railway line, but also including the streets around Nightingale Square). The entirety of Wandsworth Common is in the Tooting constituency.

Tooting is bordered by the following constituencies:

• Battersea
• Mitcham and Morden
• Putney
• Streatham

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in South London, the Boundary Commission for England has created a modified Tooting constituency from the following electoral wards:

• Bedford, Earlsfield, Furzedown, Graveney, Nightingale, Tooting, and Wandsworth Common.

History

The constituency was created for the February 1974 election from the seats of Battersea South, Streatham, and Wandsworth Central.

Constituency profile

The modern Tooting seat is perhaps confusingly named, as it contains much of Balham, Wandsworth Common and Earlsfield, yet the southernmost parts of the area that self-identifies as Tooting are actually in the London Borough of Merton.

Like the other two seats in the Borough of Wandsworth, there are plenty of voters who support the Conservatives at both local and national level, though Tooting is more mixed, with enough strong Labour support in the South of the seat to return Labour MPs and councillors.

The area around Tooting itself has a large Asian population - only Southall and the Brick Lane area have a higher concentration of Asian voters in London.

Transport links to central London are good, and the population has expanded steadily due to the area's popularity with commuters looking for somewhere affordable to live.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	Feb 1974	Tom Cox	Labour
	2005	Sadiq Khan	Labour

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2010: Tooting
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Sadiq Khan	22,038	43.5	+0.8
	Conservative	Mark Clarke	19,514	38.5	+8.0
	Liberal Democrat	Nasser Butt	7,509	14.8	-4.8
	UKIP	Strachan McDonald	624	1.2	+0.2
	Green	Roy Vickery	609	1.2	-2.9
	Independent	Susan John-Richards	190	0.4	+0.4
	Christian	Shereen Paul	171	0.3	+0.3
Majority			2,524	5.0	-7.9
Turnout			50,655	68.6	+9.3
	Labour hold		Swing	-3.6

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Tooting
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Sadiq Khan	17,914	43.1	-11.0
	Conservative	James Bethell	12,533	30.2	+3.8
	Liberal Democrat	Stephanie Dearden	8,110	19.5	+4.6
	Green	Siobhan Vitelli	1,695	4.1	+0.5
	Respect	Ali Zaidi	700	1.7	N/A
	UKIP	Strachan McDonald	424	1.0	N/A
	Independent	Ian Perkin	192	0.5	N/A
Majority			5,381	12.9	-14.8
Turnout			41,568	59.0	+4.1
	Labour hold		Swing	-7.4

General Election 2001: Tooting
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Tom Cox	20,332	54.1	-5.6
	Conservative	Alexander Nicoll	9,932	26.4	-0.7
	Liberal Democrat	Simon James	5,583	14.9	+5.5
	Green	Matthew Ledbury	1,744	4.6	+3.5
Majority			10,400	27.7	-4.9
Turnout			37,591	54.9	-14.4
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Tooting
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Tom Cox	27,516	59.7	+11.5
	Conservative	James Hutchings	12,505	27.1	-13.0
	Liberal Democrat	Simon James	4,320	9.4	+2.0
	Referendum Party	Angela Husband	829	1.8
	Green	Matthew Ledbury	527	1.1
	Independent	Peter Boddington	161	0.3
	Independent	Jan Koene	94	0.2
	Rainbow Dream Ticket	Daniel Baily-Bond	83	0.2
	Natural Law	Peter Miller	70	0.2
Majority			15,011	32.6
Turnout			46,105	69.43
	Labour hold		Swing

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London
• London Borough of Wandsworth

External links

• Sadiq Khan MP official site
• Labour Party in Wandsworth
• Conservative Party in Wandsworth
• Liberal Democrats in Wandsworth