County Greater London Electorate 64,770 (December 2010) European Parliament constituency London Member of parliament Iain Duncan Smith | Population 88,149 (2011 census) Created 1997 Founded 1997 Number of members 1 | |
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Created from Chingford and Wanstead & Woodford Replaced by Chingford, Wanstead and Woodford | ||
Chingford and Woodford Green is a constituency in Greater London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 1997 creation by Iain Duncan Smith of the Conservative Party.
Contents
Boundaries
The London Borough of Waltham Forest wards of Chingford Green, Endlebury, Hale End and Highams Park, Hatch Lane, Larkswood, and Valley, and the London Borough of Redbridge wards of Church End and Monkhams have been selected to form the seat since inception.
The boundaries of Chingford and Woodford Green take in a large slice of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The constituency includes Chingford in the north bordering Enfield down through Highams Park and Hatch Lane into Woodford, and also takes in a part of the London Borough of Redbridge.
History
Before 1945, both Woodford and Chingford were part of Epping for general elections, for which Winston Churchill was MP. The constituency was created in 1997 from parts of the former seats of Chingford and Wanstead & Woodford. Both seats previously had well-known MPs, Norman Tebbit and Winston Churchill respectively. Iain Duncan Smith had been MP for Chingford since 1992 then was elected MP for this constituency.
Chingford and Woodford Green and its predecessors have been solid Conservative wards since the beginning of the Thatcher period in 1979. The closest contest was from Labour in the 1997 general election and the Conservatives retained the seat in 2001 with a majority little changed on a low turnout while Duncan Smith was Shadow Defence Secretary in almost complete peacetime. In 2005 the Conservative incumbent did better, getting twice as many votes as Labour with a swing to the party of 6.4% (over double that nationally) from Labour. The 2015 result gave the seat the 119th most marginal majority of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority.