Bethnal Green and Bow (UK Parliament constituency)

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Bethnal Green and Bow is a constituency located in Greater London, 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. The constituency first existed 1974-1983, and was re-created in 1997. It is one of the poorest constituencies in London, and is one of the most ethnically diverse with a large minority being Bangladeshi.

Boundaries

Brick Lane

The seat is centred on the northern part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, taking in much of Bethnal Green, Bow and Stepney. It includes much of the traditional East End, the Tower of London and Brick Lane.

The 1974-1983 constituency comprised the then London Borough of Tower Hamlets wards of Bethnal Green Central, Bethnal Green East, Bethnal Green North, Bethnal Green South, Bethnal Green West, Bow North, Bow South, Bromley, Holy Trinity and Spitalfields.

Between the 1983 and 1997 general elections, the equivalent seat was Bethnal Green and Stepney.

Boundary review

Following the review of parliamentary representation in North London in 2001, the Boundary Commission for England has modified the seat of Bethnal Green and Bow. A name change to "Tower Hamlets North" was rejected. The electoral wards which are used in the re-drawn Bethnal Green and Bow are entirely within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

• Bethnal Green North, Bethnal Green South, Bow East, Bow West, Mile End and Globe Town, St Dunstan’s and Stepney Green, Spitalfields and Banglatown, Weavers, Whitechapel.

The Tower Hamlets wards of Blackwall and Cubitt Town, Bromley-by-Bow, East India and Lansbury, Limehouse, Mile End East, Millwall, St Katherine’s and Wapping and Shadwell have been moved to the new constituency of Poplar and Limehouse.

History

1970s-1994

In 1974 the Bethnal Green constituency was abolished. A new seat was created with the strict official name of Tower Hamlets, Bethnal Green and Bow. However the London Borough prefix is not commonly used for seats in the 1974-1983 redistribution.

The 1974-1983 constituency was a safe Labour seat, with the Liberal Party in a distant second place. Ian Mikardo, a well known back bench Labour MP, represented the area in this period.

Between 1983 and 1997, most of the present constituency formed the seat of Bethnal Green and Stepney.

The borough of Tower Hamlets has a reputation for being a bastion of radical politics, with Communists and more recently the Respect MP George Galloway being elected to Parliament as well as providing massive Labour majorities. Before a recent revival, the Conservative Party last won council seats in the area in 1931. The Liberal Party remained the main challengers to Labour in the Bethnal Green area but the loss of Percy Harris as Bethnal Green South West MP and eventually as London County Councillor too (despite a temporary comeback in 1946) put them out of the running in Parliamentary elections until a Liberal revival began in Bow in the late 1970s. Tower Hamlets was the only London Borough to have had seats held by the Communist Party of Great Britain; they lost their last seats in 1971. Between 1945 and 1950, Mile End provided the CPGB with one of its two parliamentary seats, being represented by Phil Piratin. Two Communists also won seats on the London County council (LCC) in 1947.

Between 1986 and 1994, the Liberal Democrats controlled Tower Hamlets council, this proved a successful but controversial period. The delivery of major infrastructure projects, including many schools and school housing projects, was balanced by alleged corruption.

1997-2006

In the 1997 general election, there was a swing of 5% to the Conservative Party at a time when the national trend was a landslide swing against them. Bethnal Green and Bow was one of only two constituencies in the country to have any sort of pro-Conservative swing. This unusual result was ascribed to problems over the selection of a Labour Party candidate, following the retirement of Peter Shore. Oona King, who won the selection, was not well known and many in the local area would have preferred a candidate from a Bangladeshi background. However the leading Bangladeshi candidates were identified with the left and were excluded from the selection.

Following British participation in the invasion of Iraq, an action deeply unpopular with the Muslim community in the constituency but nevertheless supported by Oona King, the newly formed Respect coalition gained support. They topped the poll in Tower Hamlets in the 2004 European Parliamentary elections and subsequently won their first local council seat in a by-election. In the May 2005 general election, the seat was narrowly won by former Labour MP George Galloway, one of Respect's leading figures. Respect also won seats in the 2006 local council elections although its performance was not as strong as many observers believed it could have been.

George Galloway has attracted criticism for lack of attendance at Parliament, especially when he appeared in the reality TV programme Big Brother. However, he has countered that he has not missed any crucial votes and that the best way for him to advance the interests of his constituents is by general campaigning. Galloway has always said that he only intended to stay in the seat for one Parliament and has announced that he will be standing for a neighbouring constituency at the next election, with Respect to pick another candidate to defend the seat.

General Election 2010

In September 2007, the Respect party selected Abjol Miah, the leader of the Respect Group on Tower Hamlets Council as their candidate to replace George Galloway in Bethnal Green and Bow. He has worked in the local area as a radio presenter, drugs worker and martial arts trainer. Previously, Miah ousted Council Leader Michael Keith, along with two other cabinet members.

The Labour Party selected Rushanara Ali. She is an Oxford graduate, and previously worked as Parliamentary Assistant to former MP Oona King. She now works for local charity The Young Foundation.

Zakir Khan was selected by the Conservative Party from an open primary. He is the Head of Public Affairs for the Canary Wharf Group based in Tower Hamlets, and a former sports manager.

Ajmal Masroor is the Lib Dem Candidate. He is a television presenter on political debates and an imam.

With all four of the main parties in the area putting forward a Bangladeshi candidate at the next general election, there is a high prospect of a first Sylheti Bengali and Muslim MP elected from this constituency.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
style="background-color: Template:Labour Co-operative/meta/color" |	Feb 1974	Ian Mikardo	Labour Co-operative
1983		constituency abolished: see Bethnal Green and Stepney
1997		constituency recreated
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1997	Oona King	Labour
style="background-color: Template:RESPECT The Unity Coalition/meta/color" |	2005	George Galloway	Respect

Election results

Confirmed candidates for the next UK general election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Rushanara Ali
	United Voice	Hasib Hikmat
	Conservative	Zakir Khan
	Liberal Democrats	Ajmal Masroor
	Respect	Abjol Miah
	Pirate	Alexander van Terheyden
	Green	Farid Bakht

At the 2005 election, as per the Electoral Commission the candidate Ejiro Etefia was coded as an "Independent" candidate because his chosen party label - Alliance for Change Restore People's Freedoms! {sic} - did not match a registered political party name.

General Election 2005: Bethnal Green and Bow

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Respect	George Galloway	15,801	35.9
	Labour	Oona King	14,978	34.0	−16.5
	Conservative	Shahagir Bakth Faruk	6,244	14.2	−10.1
	Liberal Democrats	Syed Nurul Islam Dulu	4,928	11.2	−4.3
	Green	John Foster	1,950	4.4	+0.1
	Alliance for Change (UK)	Ejiro Etefia	68	0.2
	Communist League	Celia Pugh	38	0.1
Majority			823	1.9
Turnout			44,007	51.2
	Respect gain from Labour		Swing

General Election 2001: Bethnal Green and Bow

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Oona King	19,380	50.5	+4.1
	Conservative	Shahagir Bakth Faruk	9,323	24.3	+3.2
	Liberal Democrats	Janet Ludlow	5,946	15.5	+3.5
	Green	Anna Bragga	1,666	4.3	+2.5
	BNP	Michael Davidson	1,211	3.2	−4.3
	New Britain	Dennis Delderfield	888	2.3	N/A
Majority			10,057	26.2
Turnout			38,414	50.2	−10.1
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1997: Bethnal Green and Bow

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Oona King	20,697	46.3	−9.5
	Conservative	Kabir Choudhury	9,412	21.1	+3.2
	Liberal Democrats	Syed Nurul Islam Dulu	5,361	12.0	−10.3
	BNP	David King	3,350	7.5	+3.9
	Liberal	Terry Milson	2,963	6.6
	Real Labour	Sheref Osman	1,117	2.5
	Green	Stephen Petter	812	1.8
	Referendum	Muhammed Abdullah	557	1.2
	Socialist Labour	Abdul Hamid	413	0.9
Majority			11,285	25.3
Turnout			44,682	60.3	−5.2

• Constituency did not exist between 1983 and 1997 - see Bethnal Green and Stepney

General Election 1979: Tower Hamlets, Bethnal Green and Bow

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ian Mikardo	14,227	49.9	−19.0
	Liberal	Eric Flounders	6,673	23.4	+10.4
	Conservative	Robin Page	5,567	19.5	+9.0
	National Front	Martin Webster	1,740	6.1	−1.5
	Workers Revolutionary	W.C. Colvill	183	0.6	+0.6
	Socialist Unity	R.J. Varnes	153	0.5	+0.5
Majority			7,554	26.5	−29.4
Turnout			51,436	55.5	+2.5
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election October 1974: Tower Hamlets, Bethnal Green and Bow

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ian Mikardo	19,649	68.9	+3.3
	Liberal	Tudor Gates	3,700	13.0	−6.7
	Conservative	C.P.Y. Murphy	2,995	10.5	−4.2
	National Front	W.E. Castleton	2,172	7.6	+7.6
Majority			15,949	55.9	+10.0
Turnout			53,753	53.0	−8.0
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election February 1974: Tower Hamlets, Bethnal Green and Bow

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ian Mikardo	21,371	65.6	N/A
	Liberal	Tudor Gates	6,417	19.7	N/A
	Conservative	C. P. Y. Murphy	4,787	14.7	N/A
Majority			14,954	45.9	N/A
Turnout			53,427	61.0	N/A
	Labour gain from new seat		Swing	N/A

Statistics

According to the 2001 census, the constituency is one of the diverse areas in the UK. It has a population of around 112,000 people, 46.4 per cent are of White race (52,148), the second largest ethnic group was, Bangladeshi (40,082) constituting 35.7 per cent of the population, other Asians 2.7 per cent (includes Indians, Pakistanis and other Asians - 3,069), those of Black race (5,494) constitute 4.9 per cent (includes Black Africans and Caribbeans), Mixed race (2,699) 2.4 per cent, Chinese (1,194) 1.1 per cent, and other ethnic groups less than 1 per cent. Statistics from the census also indicated that about 40 per cent of people are Muslims within the constituency, the highest in England.

External links

• UK Constituency Maps
• BBC Vote 2001 (Includes 1997 and 2001 results)
• BBC Election 2005 (Includes 2005 candidates)

Bibliography

• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1974-1983, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Research Services 1984)
• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume IV 1945-1979, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1981)