Bromley and Chislehurst

Bromley and Chislehurst Borough constituency
Bromley and Chislehurst shown within Greater London
Created:	1997
MP:	Bob Neill
Party:	Conservative
Type:	House of Commons
County:	Greater London
EP constituency:	London

The new wards and boundaries for the Bromley and Chislehurst Parliament constituency (red) that will be used in elections from the 2009 onwards, within the London Borough of Bromley (yellow)

Bromley and Chislehurst is a parliamentary constituency in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, represented by Bob Neill for the Conservative Party. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Aside from a few council estates in areas such as Mottingham and Bromley Common, this constituency is relatively prosperous and suburban - the 2001 census also shows that the area is predominantly white.^[1] Until 2006 it was one of the Conservative party's safest seats, but the by-election of that year saw the party's electoral majority fall steeply from over 13,000 (in the 2005 election) to just over 600 votes (see below - "Election results").

Boundaries

Bromley and Chislehurst constituency covers the northern part of the London Borough of Bromley between the towns of Bromley and Chislehurst, and the central part of the borough as far south as Hayes and Bromley Common.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in South London, the Boundary Commission for England has made changes to the existing Bromley and Chislehurst constituency. The electoral wards used in the formation are:

• Bickley, Bromley Town, Chislehurst, Cray Valley West, Mottingham and Chislehurst North, Plaistow and Sundridge from the London Borough of Bromley

The boundary changes that will come into force before the next General Election (2010) will remove the ward of Bromley Common & Keston and that part of the Hayes & Coney Hall ward that currently lies within the constituency, to Beckenham constituency, and the Cray Valley West ward will move into the seat from Orpington constituency. Pollsters estimate that this will slightly reduce the Conservative vote.^[1]

History

The Bromley parliamentary constituency was created in 1918 (previously the area had been part of the larger Sevenoaks constituency). In 1974 it became Ravensbourne. In 1997, following the abolition of the old Chislehurst constituency, the seats of Ravensbourne and Chislehurst were joined and thus the new parliamentary constituency of Bromley and Chislehurst emerged.

Harold Macmillan was the MP for Bromley from 1945 until his retirement in 1964, when he was succeeded by John Hunt. Hunt, on the left of the Conservative party, held the seat (renamed Ravensbourne in 1974) until 1997 when Eric Forth took over as Conservative MP for the newly-created Bromley and Chislehurst constituency. In May 2006, just after the Local Elections, Forth was taken ill, complaining of severe stomach pains. He was diagnosed with inoperable cancer and died peacefully a few days later.

A by-election was held on 29 June 2006, which returned London Assembly member Bob Neill as the new Conservative MP with an electoral majority of just over 600 votes - compared to the previous Conservative majority of over 13000 in the 2005 general election (see "election results" below).

Members of Parliament

Election results

References

Further reading

• Cook, Chris and Ramsden, John. By-elections in British politics (Routledge, 2003)

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London

Coordinates: 51°23′54″N 0°02′42″E / 51.3984°N 0.0450°E / 51.3984; 0.0450