Ealing Central and Acton
Notional 2005 Results:
Conservative: 12655 (32.8%)
Labour: 12571 (32.6%)
Liberal Democrat: 11468 (29.7%)
Other: 1876 (4.9%)
Majority: 84 (0.2%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 11059 (27.9%)
Labour: 16579 (41.8%)
Liberal Democrat: 9986 (25.2%)
Green: 1999 (5%)
Majority: 5520 (13.9%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 9355 (25.1%)
Labour: 20144 (54.1%)
Liberal Democrat: 6171 (16.6%)
UKIP: 476 (1.3%)
Other: 1055 (2.8%)
Majority: 10789 (29%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 12405 (25.8%)
Labour: 28052 (58.4%)
Liberal Democrat: 5163 (10.7%)
Referendum: 637 (1.3%)
Other: 1807 (3.8%)
Majority: 15647 (32.6%)
Boundary changes: the link between the boroughs of Ealing and Hammersmith & Fulham comes to and end, meaning that the new seat loses the parts of the old constituency that fell under the Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham - primarily Shepherd`s Bush and White City. Instead it gains the whole of the divided wards of Ealing Broadway, Ealing Common, Hanger Hill and Walpole.
Profile: The old Ealing Acton and Shepherd`s Bush was an awkward partnership, linking suburban Ealing and Acton with multi-cultural Shepherd`s Bush and the council estates of White city. The new seat is more suburban and Conservative. The main area of Labour strength is the South Acton council estate, currently undergoing a programme of demolition and redevelopment.
In the North the constituency extends into the Park Royal industrial areas, including the Grand Union Canal and the traffic blackspot of the Hanger Lane Gyratory System. The Ealing part of the constituency includes Thames Valley University and the famous Ealing studios.
The notional figures suggest that Ealing Central & Acton will be one of the closest three way marginals in the country. In Rallings and Thrasher`s notional figures Ealing Central & Acton has a notional Labour majority, meaning that the mainstream media will treat it as a Labour held seat in terms of whether it is a Gain or a Hold on election night (see also Watford)
Current MP: Andrew Slaughter (Labour) born 1960, London. Barrister specialising in criminal law. Former leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council. Contested Uxbridge by-election in 1997, First elected for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd`s Bush in 2005. At the next election he will follow the Shepherd`s Bush part of his constituency into the new Hammersmith seat (more information at They work for you)
Candidates: 
Angie Bray (Conservative) born 1953, London. Educated at Abbey Preparatory School and St Andrews University. Member of the London Assembly for West Central Constituency and Leader of the Conservative Group on the London Assembly since 2006. Formerly a reporter for LBC radio, head of Broadcasting at CCO and public affairs consultant. Contested East Ham in 1997.
Jon Ball (Liberal Democrat) Educated at Merchant Taylors School, Crosby, and Hatfield Polytechnic. Manager of film and television production company. Ealing councillor since 2002. Contested Hayes and Harlington in 2005.
Bassam Mahfouz (Labour) Parliamentary researcher for Karen Buck and Stephen Pound. Ealing councillor.
Tim Carpenter (Libertarian)
2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 105825
Male: 49%
Female: 51%
Under 18: 18.4%
Over 60: 15.6%
Born outside UK: 37.4%
White: 72.6%
Black: 7.4%
Asian: 10.2%
Mixed: 3.8%
Other: 6%
Christian: 56.5%
Hindu: 3%
Jewish: 0.9%
Muslim: 8.4%
Sikh: 1.7%
Full time students: 5.7%
Graduates 16-74: 47.3%
No Qualifications 16-74: 15.2%
Owner-Occupied: 56.9%
Social Housing: 17.9% (Council: 9.5%, Housing Ass.: 8.4%)
Privately Rented: 22.5%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 8.5%
The original proposals for the re-naming of this seat was to call it ‘Acton & Shepherd’s Bush’ as opposed to ‘Ealing Acton & Shepherd’s Bush’.
The original name was more logical as most of Ealing had been removed, leaving more or less what had been the historical borough of Acton (and the annex of the Shepherd’s Bush part of Hammersmith).
Although this is more or less the restoration of the old Ealing Acton constituency (in particular its 1983 - 1997 boundaries) Ealing Central & Acton pays respect to the fact that the constituency is made up of two distinct areas.
Conservative: 17000
Liberal Democrat: 10500
Labour: 9500
Other: 1500
Majority: 5500
Troughgate will give this seat to Lib Dems. They”ve been the cleanest .
Same story in other 3-way marginals?
I’m sure Jon Ball will be going all out to prove you right, Newbie, but I don’t know if it’s as simple as all that.
Peter - I think the logic behind the EA&SB name is that it is in keeping with the tradition of “Borough - comma - more specific name” format constituencies.
So these seats are named
Ealing, North
Ealing, Southall
Ealing, Acton & Shepherd’s Bush
I’m not so sure that logic does apply - if it does it does so very inconsistently. On the boundaries drawn up in 1974 which first took account of the vreation of the GLC, all the seats in Greater London were named in this way following the example of the old London boroughs (ie those in the old LCC area). Thus seats were named as, for example, “Havering, Romford”, “Merton, Wimbledon”, “Hillingdon, Uxbridge” etc. In 1983 this format was largely discontinued with the majority of constituencies reverting to a single name which did not give recognition to the name of the borough except where either the name of the borough coincided with the name of a distinct area (eg Greenwich, Kingston) or where the names of constituencies followed the format of borough name + compass point (eg Harrow East & West, Croydon Central etc). There were then very few seats which were named along the lines “Borough - comma - more specific name”. One was Enfield Southgate (which contains very little of what could be described as Enfield or territory which formed part of the old Enfield MB). Lewisham Deptford was another which continued this format - in this case it was justified by the fact that it included the whole of the old Deptford LB but also parts of the old Lewisham LB including the centre of Lewisham itself.
Ealing borough was the only one (other than boroughs which were all compass point like Harrow, Brent and Croydon) where all the seats included the borough name within the title. This was because the old Ealing MB was split between all three seats - Ealing North being entirely contained within it (but including the previously seperate areas of Northolt & greenford as well as parts of Ealing ‘proper’) but with Ealing, Southall and Ealing, Acton both including significant chunks of the old Ealing MB as well as the previously seperate boroughs contained in the second part of the names.
If you take Enfield -
1965 - 1974 (constituencies created 1955)
Edmonton
Enfield East
Enfield West
Southgate
1974 - 1983
Enfield Edmonton (old Edmonton)
Enfield North (combined Enfield East with half of Enfield West)
Enfield Southgate (combined Southgate with half of Enfield West)
1983 -
Edmonton
Enfield North
Enfield Southgate
Enfield was dropped from Enfield Edmonton because it contained none of Enfield but retained in Enfield Southgate because it was still largley Enfield West.
Enfield West also included Potters Bar which was moved in to Herts (Herts South at first then Hertsmere). It was considerably less than half of Enfield West which was added to Southgate, but a sufficient amount I suppose to justify the name in the eyes of the boundary commision
Interesting
I was driving more at Peter’s comment that EA&SB was a misnomer because very little of Ealing (indeed barely any of what I would have termed Ealing when I lived there) was in the seat.
My point was that I don’t think the name EA&SB was meant to imply that it was a seat made up of three areas, Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush - rather that it was a seat made up of two areas (Acton and Shepherd’s Bush) and that it belonged to the “set” of seats for Ealing borough.
Fortunately we can now deal with the new boundaries which strike me as much more sensible - having lived almost on the boundary of the current EA&SB and Southall seats, Acton fits far better with Ealing proper than it ever did with a glorified transport interchange in north Hammersmith!
This caused confusion as well because I remember the electoral department in Wandsworth referring to Wandsworth, Battersea etc in notices long after the “Wandsworth” had been dropped.
“My point was that I don’t think the name EA&SB was meant to imply that it was a seat made up of three areas, Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush - rather that it was a seat made up of two areas (Acton and Shepherd’s Bush) and that it belonged to the “set” of seats for Ealing borough.”
Yes I take that point. The only ward of Ealing ‘proper’ included was Hangar Lane so the naming reflected either the borough name or intended to show some continuity with the previous Ealing Acton seat
I don’t think the LDs will remain strong here (despite my own views).
I suspect it was a fairly temporary vote, and that the Tory win here will be more substantial than I thought in 2007.
On a few occasions in 2007 I actually thought it could be a notional Labour gain.
Certainly wouldn’t want to assume, but I suspect Angie Bray will win this quite convincingly.
“Yes I take that point. The only ward of Ealing ‘proper’ included was Hangar Lane so the naming reflected either the borough name or intended to show some continuity with the previous Ealing Acton seat”
The current EA&SB also includes parts of Ealing Broadway ward, most notably the station itself. So, there is more logic to it having the name Ealing than you suggest.
I agree with many of the earlier comments that putting parts of Ealing Broadway in the same constituency as SB was a very odd move. The new ECA makes much more sense.
The commission didnt put ‘parts of Ealing Brodway ward’ in that constituency because there was no such ward. Obviously when the constituency of Ealing, Acton & Shepherds Bush was created the wards in use at the time were used as building blocks, there were therefore the five wards which covered Acton at the time (Heathfield, Southfield, Springfield, Vale and Victoria) and one ward from what I called ‘Ealing Proper’, namely Hangar Lane. Subsequently part of that ward was joined with parts of the old Pitshangar ward to form Ealing Broadway ward
I’m glad they dropped the automatic mentioning of the borough name in 1983. It was rather cumbersome. Also the official name of Barking before 1983 was “Barking, Barking” which was a bit ridiculous.
There’s also the issue of whether the comma is included in the name. A lot of organisations have dropped the comma, so it’s “Enfield Southgate” not “Enfield, Southgate”. This is more usual now, as in “Birmingham Edgbaston.” Some people include the comma even for compass points such as “Harrow, East” but that’s unusual now.