Everything about Bethnal Green And Bow Uk Parliament Constituency totally explained
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.
Boundaries
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
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
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 isn't 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 Pirratin. Two Communists also won seats on the London County council (LCC) in 1947.
Between
1986 and
1994, the Liberal Democrats controlled
Tower Hamlets council, but this proved a deeply controversial period, witnessing splits in the local party and much criticism from outside.
The seat also has a large non-white population, estimated at around 58% of the population. The largest group in this number is the
Bengali community (36%)
(External Link
).
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, wasn't 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 who is Jewish, 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 wasn't 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's countered that he hasn't 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'll be standing for a neighbouring constituency at the next election, with Respect to pick another candidate to defend the seat.
In September 2007, the Respect party selected Abjol Miah as their candidate to replace George Galloway in Bethnal Green and Bow. Miah, a stick fighting champion of Bengali origin is to compete with the Labour candidate Rushanara Ali in the notionally safe Labour seat. Miah 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.
Rusahanara Ali is an Oxford graduate, and worked with former MP Oona King with whom she held a secretarial job during King's term as MP. Ali says she disagreed with her former boss in regards to the Iraq war and that her main aim is to look into local issues affecting people.
Members of Parliament
Election results
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! - didn't match a registered political party name.
Constituency didn't exist between 1983 and 1997 - see Bethnal Green and Stepney
Further Information
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