Finchley and Golders Green
2010 Results:
Conservative: 21688 (45.99%)
Labour: 15879 (33.67%)
Liberal Democrat: 8036 (17.04%)
UKIP: 817 (1.73%)
Green: 737 (1.56%)
Majority: 5809 (12.32%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Labour: 16933 (39.7%)
Conservative: 16902 (39.7%)
Liberal Democrat: 7123 (16.7%)
Other: 1670 (3.9%)
Majority: 31 (0.1%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 16746 (38.8%)
Labour: 17487 (40.5%)
Liberal Democrat: 7282 (16.9%)
Green: 1136 (2.6%)
UKIP: 453 (1%)
Other: 110 (0.3%)
Majority: 741 (1.7%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 16489 (37.8%)
Labour: 20205 (46.3%)
Liberal Democrat: 5266 (12.1%)
UKIP: 330 (0.8%)
Green: 1385 (3.2%)
Majority: 3716 (8.5%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 19991 (39.7%)
Labour: 23180 (46.1%)
Liberal Democrat: 5670 (11.3%)
Referendum: 684 (1.4%)
Other: 781 (1.6%)
Majority: 3189 (6.3%)
Boundary changes: Relatively minor. Gains part of Woodhouse ward from Chipping Barnet, small parts of Golders Green, Finchley Church End and Garden Suburb wards from Hendon, while losing most of Coppetts ward to Chipping Barnet.
Profile: Covers Finchley, Golders Green, Childs Hill and Hampstead Garden Suburb. A well-to-do residential seat with a large Jewish population. Was represented by Margaret Thatcher and considered a safe Conservative seat prior Rudi Vis` unexpected victory in 1997. In Rallings and Thrasher`s notional figures Finchley & Golders Green has a notional Conservative majority, meaning that the mainstream media will treat it as a Tory held seat in terms of whether it is a Gain or a Hold on election night
Current MP: Mike Freer (Conservative) born 1960, Manchester. Educated at Chadderton Grammar School and Stirling University. Works as an area manager for Barclays Bank. Barnet councillor since 2000 and currently Leader of Barnet council. Contested Harrow West in 2005.
Mike Freer (Conservative) born 1960, Manchester. Educated at Chadderton Grammar School and Stirling University. Works as an area manager for Barclays Bank. Barnet councillor since 2000 and currently Leader of Barnet council. Contested Harrow West in 2005.
Alison Moore (Labour) Educated at University of London. Barnet councillor and leader of the Labour group on Barnet council.
Laura Edge (Liberal Democrat) Housing solicitor. Haringey councillor. 
Donald Lyven (Green)Susan Cummins (UKIP)2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 106378
Male: 47.3%
Female: 52.7%
Under 18: 21%
Over 60: 19%
Born outside UK: 35.9%
White: 74.2%
Black: 5.2%
Asian: 12.3%
Mixed: 3.2%
Other: 5.1%
Christian: 40%
Hindu: 6.8%
Jewish: 19.6%
Muslim: 6%
Full time students: 7.3%
Graduates 16-74: 44.6%
No Qualifications 16-74: 15.8%
Owner-Occupied: 63.1%
Social Housing: 11.9% (Council: 7.2%, Housing Ass.: 4.7%)
Privately Rented: 21.6%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 6.4%
I think the old Woodhouse ward was gained by Labour in 1986, fairly narrowly,
and held, also fairly narrowly in 1990.
I think it was gained by the Tories in a by-election in 1975 so presumably held by them in 1978 and 1982.
Woodhouse, 1986:
Lab: 2170 / 2056 / 1973
Con: 1939 / 1877 / 1851
Alliance: 1110 / 1062 / 984
Woodhouse, 1990:
Lab: 3002 / 2987 / 2979
Con: 2899 / 2885 / 2801
Thanks – those 1990 figures are familiar.
I think the Alliance vote collapsed but a fair rise in turnout aswell.
The 1970 result is interesting in Finchley
(obviously different boundaries from 1974-97, and 1997-2010, 2010>).
The Labour vote increased about 2% in share,
and the Liberal vote fell away more than I realised.
I was aware that they had come second in 1964,however.
On the relevant webpage there don’t seem to be any figures for the LDs in Woodhouse in 1990. I don’t know whether this is an error or whether they didn’t in fact stand.
The LDs didn’t stand in Woodhouse in 1990, nor in St Pauls or East Finchley
According to the London Research Centre document for 1990, the Lib Dems didn’t stand in Woodhouse ward in 1990 and the full result is that given above by Andy:
Woodhouse, 1990:
Lab: 3002 / 2987 / 2979
Con: 2899 / 2885 / 2801
Woodhouse, 1968:
Con: 2632* / 2608* / 2582*
Lab: 939 / 853 / 846
Lib: 460 / 412 / 383
Comm: 172
Woodhouse, 1971:
Con: 1849* / 1833* / 1822*
Lab: 1748 / 1706 / 1665
Lib: 381 / 368 / 367
Woodhouse, 1974:
Lab: 1672* / 1624* / 1576
Con: 1597* / 1552 / 1524
Lib: 684 / 677 / 674
Woodhouse, by-election 28th October 1976:
Con: 1616*
Lab: 942
NF: 410
Lib: 351
Woodhouse, 1978:
Con: 2327* / 2306* / 2265*
Lab: 1535 / 1444 / 1410
Lib: 409 / 378 / 367
Woodhouse, 1982:
Con: 2135* / 2126* / 2021*
Lab: 1326 / 1189 / 1168
Alliance: 1048 / 1039 / 1036
What is this obsession with Woodhouse all about anyway? it isn’t exactly one of the most interesting wards
Brings it all back, what Pete says about the LDs not standing in those wards. I helped Labour win the St Pauls ward by-election in 1983 (there was an Independent Tory candidate, but the Labour majority exceeded his vote by 2 which was pleasing at the time). There was (perhaps still is) a Fullers pub in the ward, where I went for a lunch break, and the Liberals had already given up & were in the pub wishing us luck. I remember the Labour victor was a Mike Freeman. This result was followed by the party winning 9 of the then 15 seats in the constituency in 1986, but the Tories still I think had a plurality of the vote because of their lead in Finchley & Friern Barnet wards outstripping our (nevertheless goodly) lead in E Finchley & the 2 marginals. Of course there have been extensive boundary changes since then, and my hair has thinned somewhat.
I saw a picture of Mrs Thatcher outside Woodhouse School on polling day in 1979.
Interesting that the Tories won Woodhouse in 1971 but Labour in 1974, unless it was a boundary change.
I’ve looked up the 1983 St Paul’s by-election result since Barnaby mentioned it above:
27th October 1983:
Michael L Freeman, Lab: 1,414
Ian S Balcombe, Con: 1,069
Krishaan D Saggar, LIBSDP: 471
John P Fitzgibbon, Ind Con: 334
Maureen T Colmans, Ecology: 59
Electorate: 11,575
Total votes: 3,347
Turnout: 29.0% (must include spoilt papers)
Caused by death of William G Hart (Con).
October 1983 was the same month Neil Kinnock became Labour leader IIRC.
Well I was close wasn’t I, but not quite exact (vis a vis the Ind Con vote & the Labour majority).
There is a resilient Labour vote in Finchley, even at their low points, no doubt about it.
Yes, there is. East Finchley has remained very loyal to Labour and I believe was the only ward in this seat won by Ken in 2008. I expect that to still be the case in next year’s election.
Labour gained all three seats in East Finchley in 1982 (which was somewhat unusual that year in London as on the whole the flow of seats was in the opposite direction) and have never lost it since. Even earlieer I believe it was always the centre of Liberal strength in the borough
Pete, why do you think Labour have done so well in that area for the past 30 years? It seems to be a reasonably affluent area with good housing stock and a fairly upmarket main thoroughfare. Is it populated with much of the same people that one can find in nearby Muswell Hill?
Yes I think you answer your own question. I had a feeling this subject had been discussed before, and sure enough here is a post I made a several years ago:
“There are pockets in eg. the Strawberry Vale estate in East Finhley ….but this is one of the most middle class seats. I was discussing East Finchley witha friend last night as it happens, noting the strong loyalty of that ward to Labour (it was the only ward in this constituency to vote for Ken Livingstone) despite it being in many parts quite a good area. I think the reason is that it resembles the western wards of Haringey which it borders in that it is prime ‘Guardianista’ territory and it is therefore a left leaning middle class from professions such as the law and media that provide the Labour vote more than the working class. The ethnic minority population would indeed be the other main source which here also includes a substantial Greek Cypriot population who do seem to incline quite sttrongly to Labour.”
May 17th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
John Pardoe ran against Mrs Thatcher in the old Finchley constituency in 1964, and succeeded in significantly reducing her majority from 1959.
That’s right.
The Liberals had been a presence in this the Finchley seat in 1959 and 1964.
They ran the old Finchley council for a while around that time.
Mrs Thatcher mentioned the Liberals had exploited some issue where Jews had been excluded from the local golf club – I think I remember correctly.
In 1966, Labour emerged as the main opposition, and kept that position even at low points subsequently.
Yes, the SDP were unable to take second place in 1983. That might have had something to do with gradual demographic changes.
Liberals, not SDP…
The Liberals didn’t do nearly aswell in 1983 as in 1974.
There are 3 separate blocks of Conservative constituencies in London:
An outer northern running from Uxbridge to Upminster.
An outer southern running from Crayford to Croydon.
A West-Central running from the City to Ealing, Brentford, Richmond and Wimbldeon.
The demographics of the outer two are similar to each other but both differ from the west-central.
The two constituencies which somewhat mar these blocks are this one and Hammersmith. If an electoral swap could be arranged the geography would be much nicer.
That’s true (though of course I wouldn’t use the word “mar”). Hammersmith at the moment, most unusually for that area, is completely surrounded by non-Labour seats, because of Teather’s win in Brent Central.
Unique I think rather than unusual. You would have to go back to 1945 when Hammersmith North was a non Labour seat (though Independent Labour) completely surrounded by Labour seats, or 1931 when it was a Conservative seat surrounded by Conservative seats. But it has never been a Labour seat completely surrounded by non-Labour seats
Yes in 1945 it elected the Soviet apologist D.N.Pritt as “Labour Independent” (as opposed to the ILP which still existed & elected 3 Glasgow MPs at that time) before it reverted to official Labour in 1950. My father has had some slides digitally remastered on his computer & Pritt was shown with a delegation of “Democratic” (i.e.Communist) lawyers of which they were both part, to Sofia in the 60s.
I also have somewhere have a copy of the 1955 Times Guide & noticed that the Labour candidate here in Finchley that year was Terry Lancaster, later to become well-known as the Political Editor of the Daily Mirror. Labour were weak in this area then.