Battersea (UK Parliament constituency)

Battersea is a constituency^{[n 1]} in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It has been represented since 2017 by Marsha de Cordova of the Labour Party.^{[n 2][n 3]}

Battersea
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Battersea in Greater London for the 2024 general election
County	Greater London
Population	106,709 (2011 census)[1]
Electorate	71,949 (2023)[2]
Current constituency
Created	1983
Member of Parliament	Marsha de Cordova (Labour)
Seats	One
Created from	Battersea North and Battersea South
1885–1918
Seats	One
Type of constituency	Borough constituency
Created from	Mid Surrey
Replaced by	Battersea North and Battersea South

The seat has had two periods of existence (1885–1918 and 1983 to date). In the first Parliament after the seat's re-creation it was Labour-represented, bucking the national result, thereafter from 1987 until 2017 the affiliation of the winning candidate was that of the winning party nationally – a 30-year bellwether.

In the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union, the constituency voted remain by an estimated 77%, the highest by a constituency with a Conservative MP at the time.^[3]

Boundaries

Map of boundaries from 2024

The seat covers the north-eastern third of the London Borough of Wandsworth. As drawn and redrawn since 1983, it includes central Wandsworth and in the same way as Chelsea on the opposite bank, it adjoins the Thames before it flows through central London.

It takes in all of the district of Battersea, including its large Battersea Park (which hosts frequent live entertainment events and seasonal festivals), riverside and London Heliport, and stretches eastwards to include Nine Elms. Surrounding Battersea Park, it includes Queenstown, large neighbourhoods of Battersea Town,^{[n 4]} and, going westwards, it includes most of Wandsworth town, including the riverside, Town Hall and East Hill.^{[n 5]} Battersea also stretches south between Wandsworth Common and Clapham Common to include Balham Ward and the eastern end of Balham (the west, for general elections, being placed since 1983 in Tooting).

1885–1918: Wards 2 and 3 of Battersea Parish, and that part of No. 4 Ward bounded on the south by Battersea Rise, and on the east by St John's Road.^[4]

1983–2010: The London Borough of Wandsworth wards of Balham, Fairfield, Latchmere, Northcote, Queenstown, St John, St Mary's Park and Shaftesbury.

St John Ward was abolished for the 2002 Wandsworth elections.^{[5] [6]} St John was thus not in use at the next general election in 2005.

For that general election, the seat included a small part of Wandsworth Town (the majority being in Tooting constituency) and most of Fairfield (a small part being in Putney).^[7]

2010–2024: The London Borough of Wandsworth wards of Balham, Fairfield, Latchmere, Northcote, Queenstown, St Mary's Park and Shaftesbury.

2024–present: Following to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which was based on the ward boundaries in place at 1 December 2020, and enacted by the Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023, the composition of the constituency from the 2024 general election was reduced to bring it in within the permitted electoral range by transferring the majority of the Fairfield ward (polling districts FFA, FFB and FFC) to Putney. Polling district FFD was retained.^[8]

Following a local government boundary review which came into effect in May 2022, the Fairfield ward was largely replaced by the Wandsworth Town ward.^[9][10] The constituency comprises the following wards of the London Borough of Wandsworth from the 2024 general election:

• Balham (majority); Battersea Park; Falconbrook; Lavender; Nine Elms; Northcote; Shaftesbury & Queenstown; St Mary's (most); Wandsworth Town (part).

Constituency profile

A largely residential and ethnically diverse inner-city district of south London, the seat of Battersea includes half of Clapham Common, along with parts of Balham and Wandsworth. The iconic Battersea Power Station along with Nine Elms and the Patmore Estate. Battersea Power Station dominates the skyline, while Clapham Junction continues to be the busiest railway interchange in the UK.

Thanks to the influx of commuters, the constituency's social and demographic profile has changed considerably over the last quarter of a century. At 65.5%, it has the highest proportion of people with a degree-level qualification or above amongst constituencies in England and Wales, according to Office for National Statistics 2021 Census figures. More than one in five has an associate professional and technical occupation.

A former bellwether seat, Battersea's winner came from the winning party from the 1987 to the 2015 general elections inclusive.

History

Major events

Battersea in the Metropolitan Board of Works area, showing "Borough of Battersea" boundaries used from 1885 to 1918 of Battersea itself

The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 provided that the Constituency was to consist of-

• "No. 2 Ward of Battersea Parish,
• No. 3 Ward of Battersea Parish, and
• So much of No. 4 Ward of Battersea Parish as lies to the north of a line drawn along the centre of Battersea Rise, and to the west of a line drawn along the centre of the St. John's Road."^[11]

Battersea constituency was originally created in 1885. From 1892 to 1918 the seat was held by trade union leader John Burns who served as a Minister (of the Crown) in the Liberal Cabinets of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and H. H. Asquith from 1905 until 1914.

The constituency was split in 1918 into:

• Battersea North, which included the cheap housing accompanying Battersea Power Station and railway-works focused Nine Elms;^[12] it saw gradual replacement in its lifespan to overcrowded terraces, and had only four years of a Conservative MP (from 1931).
• Battersea South had average-middle income and few pockets of slum clearance. It saw 38 years of a Conservative MP, lastly from 1959 to 1964, without electing one during new latter-day Conservative governments which came to power in 1970 and 1979.

The two seats have been rejoined since 1983, such that some areas of Battersea South became part of the adjoining Tooting seat. Alf Dubs (Labour), before the election the incumbent for Battersea South, won Battersea in 1983. Conservative John Bowis won in the next elections, 1987 and 1992. Martin Linton, a Labour politician, took it back in 1997 and held the seat until 2010.

Minor events

In 2001, the candidate T.E Barber used the candidate description "No fruit out of context party", and advocated the end of, amongst other crimes against food, pineapples on pizza.^[13]

In the book Things Can Only Get Better: Eighteen Miserable Years in the Life of a Labour Supporter, John O'Farrell describes his experiences of being the secretary of Queenstown Branch of the Battersea Labour party, during which time the branch suffered a net loss at every local election and, in 1987, lost their MP, Alf Dubs.

Benefiting from an exclusivity arrangement, the old Battersea North was one of two seats in London to have had a Communist MP: Shapurji Saklatvala represented the area from 1922 to 1929. A wealthy aristocratic Indian, he was among the five Communists elected to the national chamber in its history and was the third of the young Socialist Labour/Communist/Labour parties from an ethnic minority background. At first, Saklatvala had local Labour party support and was also a member of that party but then stood as a Communist in 1924 with local Labour party backing. The head office of the less radical Labour party mandated an official Labour candidate stand against him in 1929. The Battersea Labour Club (a drinking club not directly connected with the political party) had a notice on its notice board up until the 1980s banning Communists from admission to the club.

Members of Parliament

First elected		Member[14]	Party
	1885	Octavius Vaughan Morgan	Liberal
	1892	John Burns	Independent Labour
	1895 (new party)		Liberal-Labour
see Battersea North and Battersea South for 1918–1983
	1983	Alf Dubs	Labour
	1987 1992	John Bowis	Conservative
	1997 2001 2005	Martin Linton	Labour
	2010 2015	Jane Ellison	Conservative
	2017 2019 2024	Marsha de Cordova	Labour

Elections

Election results 1983-2024

Elections in the 2020s

General election 2024: Battersea^[15]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Marsha de Cordova	22,983	48.8	+2.4
	Conservative	Tom Pridham	10,944	23.2	–12.2
	Liberal Democrats	Francis Chubb	4,826	10.3	–4.8
	Green	Joe Taylor	4,239	9.0	+6.5
	Reform UK	Barry Edwards	2,825	6.0	+5.4
	Workers Party	Daniel Smith	499	1.1	N/A
	Rejoin EU	Georgina Burford-Connole	401	0.9	N/A
	Independent	Jake Thomas	216	0.5	N/A
	SDP	Ed Dampier	149	0.3	N/A
Majority			12,039	25.6	+14.6
Turnout			47,082	64.7	–11.6
Registered electors			72,767
	Labour hold		Swing	7.3

Elections in the 2010s

2019 notional result[16]
Party		Vote	%
	Labour	25,457	46.4
	Conservative	19,431	35.4
	Liberal Democrats	8,316	15.1
	Green	1,364	2.5
	Brexit Party	350	0.6
Turnout		54,918	76.3
Electorate		71,949

General election 2019: Battersea^[17]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Marsha de Cordova	27,290	45.5	0.4
	Conservative	Kim Caddy	21,622	36.1	5.4
	Liberal Democrats	Mark Gitsham	9,150	15.3	7.3
	Green	Lois Davis	1,529	2.5	0.9
	Brexit Party	Jake Thomas	386	0.6	New
Majority			5,668	9.5	5.0
Turnout			59,977	75.6	4.6
Registered electors			79,309
	Labour hold		Swing	2.5

General election 2017: Battersea^[18][19]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Marsha de Cordova	25,292	45.9	+9.1
	Conservative	Jane Ellison	22,876	41.5	−10.9
	Liberal Democrats	Richard Davis	4,401	8.0	+3.6
	Independent	Chris Coghlan	1,234	2.2	New
	Green	Lois Davis	866	1.6	−1.7
	UKIP	Eugene Power	357	0.6	−2.5
	Socialist (GB)	Daniel Lambert	32	0.1	New
Majority			2,416	4.4	N/A
Turnout			55,058	71.0	+4.0
Registered electors			77,574
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	+10.0

See also: Opinion polling for the United Kingdom general election, 2017 § Battersea

General election 2015: Battersea^[20][21]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Jane Ellison	26,730	52.4	+5.1
	Labour	Will Martindale	18,792	36.8	+1.7
	Liberal Democrats	Luke Taylor	2,241	4.4	−10.3
	Green	Joe Stuart	1,682	3.3	+2.2
	UKIP	Christopher Howe	1,586	3.1	+2.1
Majority			7,938	15.6	+3.4
Turnout			51,031	67.0	+1.3
Registered electors			76,111
	Conservative hold		Swing	+1.6

General election 2010: Battersea^[22]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Jane Ellison	23,103	47.3	+7.3
	Labour	Martin Linton	17,126	35.1	−4.1
	Liberal Democrats	Layla Moran	7,176	14.7	−0.1
	Green	Guy Evans	559	1.1	−3.1
	UKIP	Christopher MacDonald	505	1.0	+0.2
	Hugh Salmon for Battersea Party	Hugh Salmon	168	0.3	New
	Independent	Tom Fox	155	0.3	New
Majority			5,977	12.2	N/A
Turnout			48,792	65.7	+6.5
Registered electors			74,311
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+6.5

Elections in the 2000s

General election 2005: Battersea^[23]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Martin Linton	16,569	40.4	−9.9
	Conservative	Dominic Schofield	16,406	40.0	+3.5
	Liberal Democrats	Norsheen Bhatti	6,006	14.6	+2.5
	Green	Hugo Charlton	1,735	4.2	New
	UKIP	Terry Jones	333	0.8	New
Majority			163	0.4	−13.3
Turnout			41,049	59.0	+4.5
Registered electors			69,548
	Labour hold		Swing	−6.7

General election 2001: Battersea^[24]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Martin Linton	18,498	50.3	−0.4
	Conservative	Lucy Shersby	13,445	36.5	−2.9
	Liberal Democrats	Siobhan Vitelli	4,450	12.1	+4.7
	Independent	Thomas Barber	411	1.1	New
Majority			5,053	13.8	+2.5
Turnout			36,804	54.5	−16.3
Registered electors			67,495
	Labour hold		Swing	+2.1

Elections in the 1990s

General election 1997: Battersea^[25]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Martin Linton	24,047	50.7	+9.5
	Conservative	John Bowis	18,687	39.4	−11.1
	Liberal Democrats	Paula Keaveney	3,482	7.4	+0.4
	Referendum	Mark Slater	804	1.7	New
	UKIP	Ashley Banks	250	0.5	New
	Rainbow Dream Ticket	Joseph Marshall	127	0.3	New
Majority			5,360	11.3	N/A
Turnout			47,397	70.8	−5.8
Registered electors			66,895
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	+10.2

General election 1992: Battersea^[26]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Bowis	26,390	50.5	+6.3
	Labour	Alf Dubs	21,550	41.2	−1.2
	Liberal Democrats	Roger O'Brien	3,659	7.0	−4.9
	Green	Ian Wingrove	584	1.1	−0.1
	Natural Law	William Stevens	98	0.2	New
Majority			4,840	9.3	+7.5
Turnout			52,281	76.6	+5.9
Registered electors			68,218
	Conservative hold		Swing	+3.7

Elections in the 1980s

General election 1987: Battersea^[27]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Bowis	20,945	44.2	+7.8
	Labour	Alf Dubs	20,088	42.4	−1.4
	SDP	David Harries	5,634	11.9	−5.6
	Green	Sonia Willington	559	1.2	+0.3
	Workers Revolutionary	Anthony Bell	116	0.3	New
Majority			857	1.8	N/A
Turnout			47,342	70.7	+4.1
Registered electors			66,979
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+4.6

General election 1983: Battersea^[28]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alf Dubs	19,248	43.8	−8.8
	Conservative	Rupert Allason	15,972	36.4	−1.6
	SDP	Michael Harris	7,675	17.5	+10.6
	National Front	Michael Salt	539	1.2	New
	Ecology	Sonia Willington	377	0.9	New
	Campaign for Black & White Unity	T. Jackson	86	0.2	New
	Community	K. Purie-Harwell	22	0.1	±0.0
Majority			3,276	7.4	−7.3
Turnout			43,919	66.6	−3.1
Registered electors			65,938
	Labour win (new seat)

Elections in the 1970s

1979 notional result[29]
Party		Vote	%
	Labour	24,810	52.6
	Conservative	17,847	37.8
	Liberal	3,234	6.9
	Others	1,298	2.8
Turnout		47,189
Electorate

Elections in the 1910s

General election December 1910: Battersea and Clapham, Battersea

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Lib-Lab	John Burns	7,836	52.8	+1.1
	Conservative	John Lane Harrington	6,544	44.0	−4.3
	Ind. Labour Party	Charles Nathaniel Lowe Shaw	477	3.2	New
Majority			1,292	8.8	+5.4
Turnout			18,927	78.5	−8.8
Registered electors			18,927
	Lib-Lab hold		Swing	+2.6

General election January 1910: Battersea and Clapham, Battersea

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Lib-Lab	John Burns	8,540	51.7	−4.4
	Conservative	Arthur Benn	7,985	48.3	+4.4
Majority			555	3.4	−8.8
Turnout			18,927	87.3	+1.6
Registered electors			18,927
	Lib-Lab hold		Swing	-4.4

Elections in the 1900s

General election 1906: Battersea^[30]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Lib-Lab	John Burns	7,387	56.1	+5.0
	Conservative	Arthur Benn	5,787	43.9	−5.0
Majority			1,600	12.2	+10.0
Turnout			13,174	85.7	+6.2
Registered electors			15,369
	Lib-Lab hold		Swing	+5.0

General election 1900: Battersea^[30]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Lib-Lab	John Burns	5,860	51.1	−0.1
	Conservative	Richard Charles Garton	5,606	48.9	+0.1
Majority			254	2.2	−0.2
Turnout			11,466	79.5	+3.6
Registered electors			14,420
	Lib-Lab hold		Swing	-0.1

Elections in the 1890s

John Burns

General election 1895: Battersea^[30]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Lib-Lab	John Burns	5,010	51.2	−6.9
	Conservative	Charles Ridley Smith	4,766	48.8	+6.9
Majority			244	2.4	N/A
Turnout			9,776	75.9	−2.2
Registered electors			12,880
	Lib-Lab gain from Independent Labour		Swing	-6.9

General election 1892: Battersea^[30]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent Labour	John Burns	5,616	58.1	New
	Conservative	Walter Moresby Chinnery	4,057	41.9	−6.8
Majority			1,559	16.2	N/A
Turnout			9,673	78.1	+6.4
Registered electors			12,381
	Independent Labour gain from Liberal		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1886: Battersea^[30]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Octavius Morgan	3,683	51.3	−3.3
	Conservative	Edward Cooper Willis	3,497	48.7	+3.3
Majority			186	2.6	−6.6
Turnout			7,180	71.7	−6.2
Registered electors			10,019
	Liberal hold		Swing	-3.3

1886 Battersea by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Octavius Morgan	Unopposed
Registered electors			10,019
	Liberal hold

Morgan sought re-election after questions arose about a government contract his firm held.

General election 1885: Battersea^[30]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Octavius Morgan	4,259	54.6
	Conservative	John Edward Cooke	3,547	45.4
Majority			712	9.2
Turnout			7,806	77.9
Registered electors			10,019
	Liberal win (new seat)

See also

• List of parliamentary constituencies in London

Notes

1. A borough constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
2. The London Borough of Wandsworth has had a Conservative Party majority of councillors in control since 1978.
3. As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years.
4. Queenstown Road Battersea is passed through by the South West Main Line. Nine Elms constitutes a large 2010s mixed use neighbourhood including the landmark converted Battersea Power Station by the River Thames. The United States Embassy is part of the redevelopment.
5. Specifically: "Fairfield" Ward, Wandsworth