Brent North
2010 Results:
Conservative: 16486 (31.52%)
Labour: 24514 (46.87%)
Liberal Democrat: 8879 (16.98%)
UKIP: 380 (0.73%)
Green: 725 (1.39%)
English Democrat: 247 (0.47%)
Independent: 1067 (2.04%)
Majority: 8028 (15.35%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Labour: 23068 (50.3%)
Conservative: 13134 (28.6%)
Liberal Democrat: 8353 (18.2%)
Other: 1334 (2.9%)
Majority: 9934 (21.6%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 11779 (33%)
Labour: 17420 (48.8%)
Liberal Democrat: 5672 (15.9%)
Other: 811 (2.3%)
Majority: 5641 (15.8%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 9944 (29.3%)
Labour: 20149 (59.4%)
Liberal Democrat: 3846 (11.3%)
Majority: 10205 (30.1%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 15324 (40.1%)
Labour: 19343 (50.7%)
Liberal Democrat: 3104 (8.1%)
Other: 403 (1.1%)
Majority: 4019 (10.5%)
Boundary changes: Major. Retains most of the old Brent North, although loses part of Tokyngton and Welsh Harp to Brent Central, but gains around a third of the old Brent South seat, including Alperton, Wembley and parts of Barnhill and Sudbury.
Profile: High ethnic population in UK constituencies is normally associated with deprived inner city seats, but Brent North is most owner-occupied residential suburbs. This is a seat of upwardly mobile successful Asians. Despite the high Labour Parliamentary majority, they (as of July 2007) hold only three council seats in the constituency – all in Fryent ward, compared to the Conservative`s 15 and Liberal Democrats 9. Barry Gardiner has a substantial twenty percent majority, but Brent North is not necessarily the Labour stronghold it appears on paper.
Current MP: Barry Gardiner(Labour) born 1957, Glasgow. Educated at Glasgow High School and St Andrews University. Ran a company of international maritime arbitators until his election. Cambridge councillor 1988-1994. First elected as MP for Brent North in 1997. Former PPS to Beverley Hughes 2002-4. Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Northern Ireland office 2004-5, the DTI 2005-6, DEFRA 2006 to 2007 (more information at They work for you)
Harshadbhai Patel (Conservative) Born India. Barrister. Brent councillor since 1996. Barry Gardiner(Labour) born 1957, Glasgow. Educated at Glasgow High School and St Andrews University. Ran a company of international maritime arbitators until his election. Cambridge councillor 1988-1994. First elected as MP for Brent North in 1997. Former PPS to Beverley Hughes 2002-4. Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Northern Ireland office 2004-5, the DTI 2005-6, DEFRA 2006 to 2007 (more information at They work for you)
James Allie (Liberal Democrat) Brent councillor. Contested Brent South 2005.
Martin Francis (Green) Born 1947, Kingsbury. Educated at the Institute of Education. Retired headteacher.
Sunita Webb (UKIP) Arvind Tailor (English Democrat) 
Atiq Malik (Independent) Brent councillor, originally elected as a Conservative.Jannen Vamadeva (Brent North Needs an Independent MP)2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 110762
Male: 48.9%
Female: 51.1%
Under 18: 23.2%
Over 60: 17.1%
Born outside UK: 48.1%
White: 37.7%
Black: 13.8%
Asian: 41.8%
Mixed: 3.1%
Other: 3.6%
Christian: 39%
Hindu: 27.8%
Jewish: 3.5%
Muslim: 12.8%
Sikh: 1.2%
Full time students: 8%
Graduates 16-74: 29.2%
No Qualifications 16-74: 24%
Owner-Occupied: 68.9%
Social Housing: 13.7% (Council: 6.5%, Housing Ass.: 7.2%)
Privately Rented: 14.4%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 5.9%
“Good point HH – boroughs at the moment are very inefficient and I would imagine most people would rather more efficient larger boroughs rather than smaller useless (although more democratic) ones.”
I also believe it is good that boroughs all have some variation in terms of including rich and poor areas – to keep councillors in touch with the whole spectrum of the population, and to help prevent one-party domination of the council.
Here in Bromley it would be bad for Penge to be hived off leaving a completely middle class, wealthy borough. Same with north versus south Croydon, Paddington versus Westminster, etc etc.
This is true but in many cases it results in the ruling party neglecting the parts of the borough that vote against them. This is particularly strong in Waltham Forest where Chingford has always been neglected north of a predominantely Labour borough and the reverse in Seven Kings (Redbridge) which was until the last couple years ignored by the Tories. All parties are guilty of this unfortunately.
I like the fact that smaller boroughs would give Labour a chance in a Tory dominated Chingford, Residents associations could form and stand with a greater chance of winning seats and the Tories can try and win a seat in a Labour dominated borough.
It all sounds great in theory….not sure how the reality would pan out!
“This is true but in many cases it results in the ruling party neglecting the parts of the borough that vote against them.”
Yes that is a fair point.
But it often comes back to bite the complacent party in the end during bad electoral years.
The Tories never ever expected to lose control of Bromley but they did so in 1998 partly because of their systematicly ignoring Penge, Mottingham and the Cray wards for 30 years, allowing the opposition to gradually build up a strong base.
Similarly the Tories lost all their wards in the north of Croydon partly due to perceived bias amongst the Tory council towards the south of the borough. Of course demographic change has since compounded the situation but in the early 1990s this was a big factor.
It will be interesting to see whether Labour ever lives to regret ignoring Chingford.
I would say in Waltham Forest the Tories virtually have no hope of winning the council. They only have huge support in the Essex half of the borough and will always be outvoted by the Labour mass in the south. The LibDems used to be a fighting force in Southern Waltham Forest but this has reversed recently and therefore allowing Labour to gain more votes.
Complacency in politics is a bad thing, if only politicians realised this.
Whay has there not been a Lib Dem-Tory coalition in Waltham Forest?
It has happened enough elsewhere in London – Lambeth, Southwark, Camden etc.
In response to Barnaby’s post yesterday, I considerably overestimated the size of Fordwich. According to the 2001 census, Fordwich had 351 inhabitants. By comparison, Chagford has a massive 1470, almost a metropolis. (Figures taken from Wikipedia).
Apparently the next smallest town is Manningtree, which at least until recently has been the name of a consitutency.
Kent has precedent, in relation to Folkestone and Hythe, for naming constituencies after ancient towns. Fordwich will be the only anciently chartered town in the new seat to be created in East Kent, and so I have just posted on the Thanet North thread to suggest that the new seat should be called “Fordwich and Herne”. Fordwich is a Cinque Port, a limb of Sandwich. Herne is of course a nice old village, below which the sprawl of Herne Bay has developed more recently.
I could post at more than my usual length about the relationship between organizational size and efficiency, using knowledge I gained from an M.Sc. degree. But let me observe that I am pretty sure Fordwich Town Council is a good deal more efficient that Brent.
Personally, I do think London Boroughs are too large. But size itself is not the main issue: there are others such as that electors tend not to identify with the large boroughs because they are often ill-defined geographically and because many people are more concerned with the area of London in which they work than that where they sleep.
Bureaucrats and professional staff tend to see false economies of scale. The disasters of NHS computerization and of Regional Fire Control Centres are horrendous recent examples of this. They don’t see that such human systems become too big to understand and the communications systems required become impossibly complex. And if I may say so, in this regard I place political activists and advisors in this problematic “tekkie” category. The same thing happens in the private sector -witness the continuing occurence of compnay mergers that can be seen in retrospect to lose money.
For a simple and brief list of points on efficient organizational system see the following: -
Cherns, A. (1976). The principles of sociotechnical design. Human Relations, 29(8), 783-792.
He wrote a follow up paper in the same journal in, I think, 1987.
Albert Cherns was a civil servant (he was Secretary of the the Department of Scientific and Industrial Reseach committee that administered grants for social services, before the ESRC) before he became a Professor at Loughborough University. So please be assured that his points apply to UK governance.
“Apparently the next smallest town is Manningtree, which at least until recently has been the name of a consitutency.”
Has it? I must of missed that one.
HH – I think the mass of LibDem votes in Waltham Forest came from previous Labour areas such as Cann Hall, Leyton etc – wards where most people owned their homes and were heavily effected by the rates change by the loony left Labour council of the late 80s. The LibDems also managed to secure seats in places like Chapel End where the Tories were competitive decades ago as well. With this in mind I think they knew they risked losing votes by joing with the Tories with many of those lost votes switching to Labour – perhaps never to return to them again. Instead they propped up a Labour administration year on year, which does make sense considering Labour tend to have the most seats on the council but not enough for a majority, until 2010.
I imagine the fact that Leyton and Leytonstone have swong more in favour of Labour at a local level shows the change in demographics with the old time residents who did vote LD leaving for places further out of London while those who have replaced them are mainly ethnic minorities who vote Labour.
There hasn’t been a constituency called Manningtree since WWII. Are you thinking of Braintree Frederic?
Possibly the smallest town to have given its name entirely to a constituency in recent years is Eye in Suffolk, which is I believe of about 2,000 inhabitants. It was last contested in 1979, being won by John (Selwyn) Gummer for the Conservatives, before being redistributed.
“HH – I think the mass of LibDem votes in Waltham Forest came from previous Labour areas such as Cann Hall, Leyton etc”
But most of the Lib Dem vote in Lambeth and Southwark also came from ex-Labour voters, yet it didn’t stop the Lib Dems forming a coalition with the Tories.
Maybe the difference is that the Lib Dems are much bigger than the Tories in those boroughs, whilst the Tories are bigger than the Lib Dems in Waltham Forest.
The Lib Dems for the last few years have actually been bigger than the Tory group and in 2006 they also gained all three seats in Hale End ward, a Tory heartland. I also remember at the time the Conservative leader stating that he would be willing to work with the Lib Dems as a way of keeping Labour out but this never happened. I can understand why the Lib Dems would join Labour, being the party with the most councillors it made sense to join with them.
Its also worth mentioning that Waltham Forest tends to be a very volatile place when it comes to politics and this could be due to being such a mixed borough with a large WWC core, a large BME core, guardianista types, Essex man types and a sizeable graduate population. This makes it the type of area that swings one way then the next with neighbouring wards all swinging in different directions.
Interesting. Which seat contains the WWC population? Presumably it can only be Chingford these days.
It is true that all types of “flight” has been ocurring in Waltham Forest for the last decade but there remains a large WWC community in Chingford (which covers the Essex Man section) and throughout of Walthamstow and Leytonstone although no where near as large as in Chingford. I only know this as I campaigned in the borough last year and surprised myself when people people opened the door. There arent so many in Leyton nowadays.
I would imagine that when the census results are released there will probably be more White British people here than in Redbridge and certainly more than Newham, Tower Hamlets etc…
Cllr Jayesh Mistry (Labour) resigned yesterday morning. This means a by-election in Wembley Central ward.There was also a by-election there in 2009 which the Lib Dems won.
Brent’s Labour Council is going through a rough period because of the cuts they have imposed with a High Court case about library closures ending yesterday. More on my blog Wembley Matters
Just read some of the old posts on here about local government in London.
I’ve metioned before about how I’m in favour of having an entirely unitary system of local government accross England.
But I accept that that’s unlikely to happen in the short or medium term becuase there is no political will for it and their is public support for two tier local government in many parts of England.
But there may be political will for reforming local government in England.
You only need to look at councils like Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool to see that larger councils in urban areas are practical and more efficient.
I know that redrawing the boundaries in London is a sensitive issue. But what do people think about reducing the number of boroughs from 32 to 20 on these boundaries?
Only four boroughs (Barnet, Havering, Bromley and Croydon) are unchanged and I haven’t come up with names for the new boroughs, so I’ve given them numbers, starting with South of the river. Their composition is given in terms of existing brorughs.
1) Kingston + Richmond,
2) Sutton, the Morden area of the Meron, and the Epsom and Ewell distirct from Surry.
3) Croydon.
4) Bromley.
5) Wandsworth + Merton, except Morden.
6) Lambeth + Southwick.
7) Lewisham + most of Greenwich, except Woolwich and Thamesmead.
9) Ealing + Hounslow
10) Hammermith and Fullam + Kennsington and Chelsea and the parts of Westminster south of the Westway and Euston Road.
11) Parts of Westminster north of Westway and Euston Road, Camden, and the parts of Brent east of the North Circular.
12) Hillingdon + Pinner.
13) Harrow (except Pinner) and the parts of Brent west of the North Circular.
14) Barnet.
15) Enfield + Haringey.
16) Islington + Hackney.
17) Tower Hamlets + Newham.
18) Waltham Forrest + Wanstead and Woodford from Redbridge.
19) Redbridge (except Wanstead and Woodford) + Barking and Dagenham.
20) Havering.
Sorry about the typo’s.
I should have said there may be politcal will for reforming local government in London.
And I guess borough number 8 (based on Bexley) will become know as the smiley face borough.
What I would do is realigne the London boundary in certain places so villages which find themselves in Greater London are returned to their previous counties. This would mean Pratts Bottom, Downe, Luxted and the Bromley villages would be returned to Kent and North Ockendon, Wennington and Noak Hill would be returned to Essex. I find having villages in Greater London ridiculous.
I wouldnt bring in Epsom and Ewell into Greater London and I don’t think they would want to become a part of a London borough however in these days of cuts creating larger boroughs may help save councils money in the long run. Politically it would make London even more intresting than it already is. What party do you predict would be the main force in each of your proposed boroughs?
Adam
“But I accept that that’s unlikely to happen in the short or medium term becuase there is no political will for it”
That’s the only sensible thing you say in your post. The rest of it is nonsense. The last thing London needs is people who know nothing of its intricate geography drawing arbitrary lines across the map like a child with a crayon.
I will speak only of the area of London I live in, the south east. Here your proposals are pretty absurd. Except for bits of Blackheath and Deptford, Greenwich and Lewisham do not fit together well at all. Neither does Woolwich and Bexley.
And the borough is called Southwark not Southwick.
Labour held Wembley Central last night, not much swing between Lab & LD since the 2010 elections.
Wembley Central by-election results
12/23/2011
Following the by-election that took place in the Wembley Central ward on Thursday 22 December, the results are as follows:
Krupa Sheth – Labour Party – Elected with 1402 votes
Afifa Pervez – Liberal Democrats – 1022 votes
Madhuri Davda – Conservative Party – 349 votes
Martin Francis – Green Party – 130 votes.
A total of 13 votes were rejected with a turnout of 27.58 per cent.
Yes, there was a small swing from Lib Dem to Labour, making the seat a bit safer.
The Liberal Democrats have selected Charlotte Henry as their candidate for the 2012 GLA Elections in Brent and Harrow.
Atiq, have you re-joined the Conservative Party?
Atiq appeared before the Local Government Tribunal Service this week for some of his activities when he was a Councillor.
John Detre thats news to me. On the same allegations I have been cleared long time ago by the Scotland Yard.
A Wembley councillor who refused to disclose where she lives after moving out of Brent is to step down.
Cllr Judith Beckman will resign from her seat in the Barnhill ward after the Times revealed she could continue to claim thousands of pounds in allowances despite moving out of the borough.
http://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/wembley_councillor_who_moved_out_of_brent_to_resign_1_1190080