County Greater London European Parliament constituency London Number of members 1 Created from Kennington, Lambeth North | Electorate 73,274 (December 2010) Member of parliament Kate Hoey Replaced by Kennington, Lambeth North | |
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Vauxhall is a constituency created in 1950 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1989 by Kate Hoey, a member of the Labour Party.
Contents
Boundaries
1950–1974: The Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth wards of Bishop's, Marsh, Oval, Prince's, and Vauxhall.
1974–1983: The London Borough of Lambeth wards of Bishop's, Oval, Prince's, Stockwell, and Vassall.
1983–1997: As above plus Clapham Town, Ferndale, and Larkhall.
1997–2010: As above plus Angell.
2010–present: As above minus Angell.
Vauxhall is wholly within the London Borough of Lambeth. The core of the constituency - unchanged from the former Lambeth North - is delimited by the River Thames to the west and north and the boundary with Southwark to the east. It includes all of Vauxhall, North Lambeth, Stockwell, Kennington and some of Brixton and north Clapham.
Constituency profile
It includes Vauxhall, Waterloo and parts of Brixton. Its landmarks include the London Eye, the Oval cricket ground and the National Theatre. Among the UK's most ethnically diverse constituencies, it has notable Jamaican, Portuguese, Ghanian and Ecuadorian communities, it also has a large LGBTQ community.
Vauxhall is one of the most densely populated constituencies and has among the highest percentage of social housing, which sits alongside multi-million pound properties overlooking the Thames. It is a real mixture - much of the population is highly qualified and it has among the highest percentage of people in full-time work in the country. But unemployment is also relatively high. It has more top professionals than average but also more long-term unemployed people.
Notable residents included the singer David Bowie, fashion designer Gok Wan, mime artist Charlie Chaplin, musician Levi Roots, Lambeth Council Leader Lib Peck and former London Mayor Ken Livingston.
Labour's Kate Hoey won the seat in the 2010 general election with a comfortable 10,651 majority. The Lib Dems came second. In 2015, they slipped into fourth place, behind the Conservatives in second place and the Greens in third.
Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 higher than the national average of 3.8%, at 5.4% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.
History
The area has since 1918 voted in parliamentary elections for Labour Party Members of Parliament except in 1931. This includes the results of the former seat of Lambeth North which had near-identical boundaries.
During the Cold War, Margot Heinemann stood as a communist candidate for the constituency in the 1950 General Election.
Vauxhall on its various boundaries has remained Labour for more than six decades since its creation — since 1989 it has been represented by, in Kate Hoey, one of the most moderate Labour members. The 1989 by-election (see separate article) was notable for the large number of candidates and the tensions that it caused in the local Labour Party due to the selection of Kate Hoey as the official candidate. Continuing a history as a safe seat, since her 1989 election, Hoey has consistently achieved majorities of more than 9,000 votes. The 2015 result made the seat the 105th safest of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority.
The local government wards in the constituency are currently entirely represented by Labour on Lambeth London Borough Council. A single Conservative represented Clapham Town ward from 2002 until losing the seat in the 2006 Council Elections.
George Strauss was appointed Minister of Supply from 1947 to 1951 during the Attlee Ministry. Kate Hoey was Minister for Sport (1999-2001) during the Blair Ministry.