County Greater London Created 1885 | Electorate 65,936 (December 2010) Number of members One | |
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Major settlements Wimbledon
Raynes Park
Morden Member of parliament Stephen Hammond (Conservative) | ||
Wimbledon is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Stephen Hammond, a Conservative.
Contents
History
The constituency was created under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 from the northeastern part of the former Mid Surrey constituency that elected two MPs. The constituency covered a much larger area than it does today and was reduced in 1918 to create the Mitcham constituency and in 1950 to create Merton and Morden.
Political history
Since 1885 the seat has elected Conservative MPs, except for 1945-1950 and 1997-2005, when in landslide years for Labour, its candidate won the seat. While the 2005 majority was marginal, the 2010 majority was 24.1% of the vote, which in majority terms only suggests a safe seat.
In terms of other parties, in 2010 the second-placed candidate was a Liberal Democrat. If including their two predecessor parties this result was their highest share of the vote since 1987, at 25%.
Apart from the three 'main parties' none others have to date reached the 5% of the vote threshold, which is the current retention of deposit threshold.
Prominent frontbenchers
Boundaries
1885-1918: The Sessional Division of Croydon except so much as is within a district of the Metropolis, the parishes of Caterham, Chelsham, Farley, Warlingham, Merton, and Wimbledon, so much of the Parliamentary Borough of Deptford as is in Surrey, and the area of the Parliamentary Boroughs of Battersea and Clapham, Camberwell, Lambeth, Newington, Southwark, and Wandsworth.
1918-1950: The Municipal Borough of Wimbledon, and the Urban District of Merton and Morden.
1950-1955: The Municipal Boroughs of Wimbledon, and Malden and Coombe.
1955-1974: The Municipal Borough of Wimbledon.
1974-1983: The London Borough of Merton wards of Cannon Hill, Priory, West Barnes, Wimbledon East, Wimbledon North, Wimbledon South, and Wimbledon West.
1983-2010: The London Borough of Merton wards of Abbey, Cannon Hill, Dundonald, Durnsford, Hillside, Merton Park, Raynes Park, Trinity, Village, and West Barnes.
2010-present: The London Borough of Merton wards of Abbey, Cannon Hill, Dundonald, Hillside, Merton Park, Raynes Park, Trinity, Village, West Barnes, and Wimbledon Park.
Constituency profile
The seat has a suburban commuter-sustained local economy with many privately owned homes and a range of open green spaces, ranging in value from elevated Wimbledon Village sandwiched between Wimbledon Common and Wimbledon Park where a large tranche of homes exceed £1,000,000 to Merton Abbey ruins and South Wimbledon, with more social housing in its wards. The hillside and hilltop village has since 1921 been unpromising territory in local council results for any party other than the Conservatives.
Wimbledon station is the southern terminus of the District line as well as a station on the South West main line, as such similar to Richmond on the other side of Richmond Park/Wimbledon Common.
Workless claimants who were registered jobseekers were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 1.5% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.