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(Redirected from Harrow West)
Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1945 onwards
The area covers the largely Georgian conservation area on a stand-alone, partly park-lined hill which hosts the famous Harrow School; it also includes the urban Harrow town centre, as well as suburban streets of homes with good-sized gardens and well-kept small parklands. The seat has fast London Underground links to the city centre and rail services, few dual carriageways and few high speed roads.
Political history
Summary of results
The Labour Party have held the seat since 1997, with the Conservative Party second-placed in each election. The 2015 result made the seat the 215th safest of the party's 232 seats (by majority percentage), and thus the 18th most marginal seat. Thomas's majority has ranged from 2.3% in 1997 to 26.4% in 2017.
Unlike Harrow East, it had always been won by the Conservative Party until Labour's landslide in 1997, when a swing of 17.5% was the eighth-highest swing in that election; it was the safest Tory seat lost to Labour. Its electorate produced another better than average result for Labour in 2001, with a swing from the Conservatives to Labour of 5.4%, bettered in only four seats out of 650. The 2005 challenge by future Conservative MP Mike Freer produced a pro-Conservative swing of 4.5%.
The 2010 inceptive seat saw a notional swing to the Tories in line with that nationally of 5.7%; in overall outcome the incumbent Labour MP's swing increased. The Harrow West and East seats now present as less marginal than they were in previous decades.
After a 1.1% swing to the Tories in 2015, the seat swung to Labour in 2017 by around 11%, with a local record number of votes for their incumbent candidate. At 34.4%, the Conservative vote share was the lowest in the seat's history, but the party received more votes in 2017 than in 2001 and 2010.
Harrow-on-the-Hill and Greenhill, Headstone, Pinner North, Pinner South, Roxeth, West Harrow; part of Harrow Weald.
1950–1955
Urban District of Harrow
Pinner North and Hatch End, Pinner South, Roxbourne, Roxeth.
1955–1983
Municipal Borough of Harrow
Headstone, Pinner North and Hatch End, Pinner South, Roxbourne, Roxeth.
1983–2010
London Borough of Harrow
Harrow on the Hill, Hatch End, Headstone North, Headstone South, Pinner, Pinner West, Rayners Lane, Ridgeway, Roxbourne, Roxeth.
2010–2024
London Borough of Harrow
Greenhill, Harrow on the Hill, Headstone North, Headstone South, Marlborough (an easterly projection centred on Harrow and Wealdstone station and its compact urban hub), Rayners Lane, Roxbourne, Roxeth, West Harrow.
2010 boundaries
Map of boundaries 2010–2024
Reviewing such representation in North London, the Boundary Commission for England (de facto), as is custom agreed by Parliament, altered the area's limits to avoid malapportionment, as London's housing and rates of occupancy have altered. The western border district, town or neighbourhood of Pinner went to a new cross-Borough seat, Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, making its source, based on a ward breakdown of the last result, and mirrored by local election results, a stronger seat for Labour; this was coupled with the inclusion of Marlborough ward which had returned many Labour councillors since World War II.
Greenhill, Harrow on the Hill, Headstone, Marlborough, North Harrow, Rayners Lane, Roxbourne, Roxeth, Wealdstone North, Wealdstone South, and West Harrow.
Wealdstone was transferred in from Harrow East. Other minor changes to align boundaries with new ward structure.
Note: From 2010 historically Conservative-strong Pinner formed part of the new seat Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner. The 2010 changes are not based on the 2005 result as the constituency underwent major changes.
Location within Greater London
1.9
6.5