1918–1950: The Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth wards of Putney and Southfields.
1950–1964: The Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth wards of Fairfield, Putney and Southfields.[2]
1964–1974: The Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth wards of Fairfield, Putney, Southfield, Thamesfield, and West Hill.[3]
1974–1983: The London Borough of Wandsworth wards of Putney, Roehampton, Southfield, Thamesfield, and West Hill.[4]
1983–2010: The London Borough of Wandsworth wards of East Putney, Parkside, Roehampton, Southfields, Thamesfield, West Hill, and West Putney.
Map of boundaries 2010-2024
2010–2024: As above less Parkside ward.
Current
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Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which was based on the ward boundaries in place at 1 December 2020, the composition of the constituency from the 2024 United Kingdom general election was expanded to bring it within the permitted electoral range by including the majority of the Fairfield ward (polling districts FFA, FFB and FFC), transferred from Battersea.[5]
Following a local government boundary review which came into effect in May 2022, the Fairfield ward was largely replaced by the Wandsworth Town ward.[6][7] The constituency now comprises the following wards of the London Borough of Wandsworth from the 2024 general election:
East Putney; Roehampton; Southfields; Thamesfield; West Hill; West Putney; most of Wandsworth Town; and small part of St Mary's.[8]
History
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When created in 1918 the constituency was carved out of the west of the abolished seat Wandsworth. The rest of the latter formed Wandsworth Central, Balham and Tooting and Streatham. Putney formed one of the divisions of the Parliamentary Borough of Wandsworth.
Political history
The seat was Conservative from 1918 until 1964, in a national context of Labour marginal wins in the 1920s, the landslide Labour victory in 1945 and the narrower Labour win in 1950. After the Labour win of 1964, the fairly narrow Heath ministry win of 1970 failed to tip the seat back to the Conservative Party, and the seat was held by Labour for 15 years with Hugh Jenkins as MP.
Putney was the first Conservative gain on election night in 2005, when Justine Greening took back the seat from Labour on a two-party swing (Lab-Con) of 6.5%. The 2015 result gave the seat the 148th most marginal majority of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority, similar to the 2010 result.[9] The 2017 election saw Greening re-elected, but with a 10% swing to Labour; this heavy swing against the Conservatives has been attributed to the fact that the Borough of Wandsworth (of which Putney is part) voted 75% in favour of remaining in the European Union in the previous year's referendum. In 2019, Putney was the only seat in the country gained by Labour, amid the worst election results for the party since 1935.[10] Labour would retain the seat in their landslide victory nearly five years later with a slightly increased majority.
Constituency profile
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Putney has long had many desirable properties of southwest London[11] with Southfields to the south and the River Thames to the north with Fulham lying across the river.
The majority of the area as in the 19th century is covered by mid-to-high income neighbourhoods[12] whereas the eastern boundary of the seat eating into Wandsworth town centre is more mixed, and Roehampton which has its university (University of Roehampton and part of the Kingston University campus) consists of, in terms of housing, by a small majority, a diverse council stock that owing to its cost has only fractionally been acquired under the Right to Buy — much of this ward remains in one form or another reliant on social housing.[12]
The local council is not a bellwether of who will win the Putney seat, and for a considerable time has imposed the lowest council tax in the country.[13] Between 1997 and 2005 Putney had a unique attribute of being the only seat in the country where every single component ward elected a full slate of Conservative councillors, yet the constituency had a Labour MP, Tony Colman.
In the 2016 EU Referendum, Putney voted 72.24% to Remain.[14]
Two weeks after the election, Wandsworth Council reported that 6,558 votes had incorrectly failed to be included in the declared election result on the night, due to a "spreadsheet issue". The council issued revised results on their website.[16] This does not have official effect unless an election petition is lodged, as returning officers in the UK do not have the legal power to revise an election result once formally declared.[17]
^A televised verbal argument occurred between Mellor and Referendum Party candidate Sir James Goldsmith, who held contrasting views on European integration, during Mellor's vote of thanks to the public on his defeat as one of the early declared results in 1997.
References
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^"The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume two: Constituency names, designations and composition – London". Boundary Commission for England. Retrieved 22 June 2024.
^"The Parliamentary Constituencies (Wandsworth, Kingston-upon-Thames and Richmond) Order 1955. SI 1960/465". Statutory Instruments 1960. Part III. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1961. pp. 2887–2889.
^"The Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023". Schedule 1 Part 3 London region.
^LGBCE. "Wandsworth | LGBCE". www.lgbce.org.uk. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
^"The London Borough of Wandsworth (Electoral Changes) Order 2021".
^"New Seat Details - Putney". www.electoralcalculus.co.uk. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
^"Conservative Members of Parliament 2015". UK Political.info. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
^Rodgers, Sienna (16 December 2019). "Labour gained just one seat - but many more fresh faces". LabourList. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
^Booth's Poverty Map of London 1898–99 Archived 2013-12-17 at the Wayback Machine See Gold/yellow and Red categorisations
^ ab"Local statistics - Office for National Statistics". neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 11 February 2003. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
^'Council Tax in England to Rise by Record Low' Archived 2022-02-15 at the Wayback MachineBBC News 24 March 2010
^"Election 2017 dashboard". Democratic Dashboard. Archived from the original on 21 February 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
^Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "P" (part 2)
^ abMcKeon, Christopher (17 July 2024). "'Spreadsheet issue' saw 6,500 votes 'go missing' in Putney election count". Evening Standard. Retrieved 18 July 2024.
^"STATEMENT OF PERSONS NOMINATED, NOTICE OF POLL AND SITUATION OF POLLING STATIONS" (PDF). Wandsworth Council. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
^"Putney results". BBC News. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
^"Notional results for a UK general election on 12 December 2019". Rallings & Thrasher, Professor David Denver (Scotland), Nicholas Whyte (NI) for Sky News, PA, BBC News and ITV News. UK Parliament. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
^"Statement of Persons Nominated" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
^"Commons Briefing Paper 8749. General Election 2019: results and analysis" (PDF). London: House of Commons Library. 28 January 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 November 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
^"Putney parliamentary constituency". BBC News. Archived from the original on 20 May 2017. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
^"Commons Briefing Paper 7979. General Election 2017: results and analysis" (PDF) (Second ed.). House of Commons Library. 29 January 2019 [7 April 2018]. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2019.
^"Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
^Council, Wandsworth. "Putney Constituency - Parliamentary election results May 2015 - Wandsworth Council". www.wandsworth.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 10 May 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
^"Wandsworth Green Party". Archived from the original on 20 September 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
^"Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
^"UK General Election results May 2010". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 2 May 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^"Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
^"UK General Election results May 2005". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 24 March 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^"Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
^"Putney: General Election result, June 2001". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^"Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
^"Putney: General Election result, May 1997". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^"Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
^"UK General Election results April 1992". Political Science Resourcess. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 8 May 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^"Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
^"UK General Election results June 1987". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^"Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
^"UK General Election results June 1983". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 30 June 2009. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^"UK General Election results May 1979". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^"UK General Election results October 1974". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 8 May 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^"UK General Election results February 1974". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 27 January 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^"UK General Election results June 1970". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 16 June 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^"UK General Election results March 1966". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 15 June 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^"UK General Election results October 1964". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 29 June 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^"UK General Election results October 1959". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^"UK General Election results May 1955". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^"UK General Election results October 1951". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^"UK General Election results February 1950". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^ ab"UK General Election results July 1945". Political Science Resources. Richard Kimber. Archived from the original on 14 July 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
^ abcdefghiCraig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 58. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
^F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-49
External links
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Politics Resources (Election results from 1922 onwards)
Electoral Calculus (Election results from 1955 onwards)
Putney UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 1997 – April 2010) at MapIt UK
Putney UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at MapIt UK
Putney UK Parliament constituency (boundaries from June 2024) at MapIt UK