Battersea is a constituency in the London Borough of Wandsworth. The seat has had two periods of existence. 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%.
Boundaries
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. 1983–2010: The London Borough of Wandsworth wards of Balham, Fairfield, Latchmere, Northcote, Queenstown, St John, St Mary's Park, and Shaftesbury. 2010–present: As above, with the exclusion of St John. Covers the north-eastern third of the London Borough of Wandsworth, Battersea as drawn and redrawn since 1983 includes central Wandsworth and in the same way as Chelsea on the opposite bank, adjoins the Thames before flowing 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 and surrounding the Park: Queenstown; generally widely known large neighbourhoods of Battersea Town; and westwards to include most of Wandsworth town, including the riverside, Town Hall and East Hill. Battersea also stretches south between Wandsworth Common and Clapham Common to include Balham Ward, the eastern end of Balham.
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 57.4%, 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 2011 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.
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."
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 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 focussed Nine Elms; it saw gradual replacement in its lifespan to overcrowded terraces, and had only four years of a Conservative MP.
Battersea South had average-middle income and few pockets of slum clearance. It saw 38 years of a Conservative MP, lastly from 1959-1964, without electing one during new latter-day Conservative governments which came to power in 1970 and 1979.
The two constituencies were rejoined in 1983, although some areas of Battersea South became part of the adjoining Tooting constituency. Alf Dubs before the election incumbent for Battersea South, won the constituency 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.
Trivia
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. 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 Labour lost every election in which they participated, and in 1987 their MP, Alf Dubs. Benefiting from an exclusivity arrangement, the old Battersea North seat 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 had a notice on its notice board up until the 1980s banning Communists from admission to the club.
