Boundaries
The constituency was created for the first time at the 1945 General Election when the Harrow constituency was split into new seats of Harrow East and Harrow West. It was reduced in size for the 1950 General Election when a third Harrow seat, Harrow Central, was created. The 1983 General Election saw Harrow reduced back to two seats, resulting in Harrow West gaining parts of the abolished Harrow Central.
Unlike Harrow East, it had always been won by the Conservative party until Labour's landslide in 1997. The swing of 17.5% was the eighth highest swing in that election, and it was the safest Conservative seat to be lost to Labour. The constituency produced another better than average result for Labour in 2001 with a swing from Conservative to Labour of 5.4%, a pro-Labour swing bettered in only four seats.
The area is known for the famous Harrow School and also includes Harrow town centre. Labour lost the neighbouring Harrow East in 2010, but managed to hold on in this seat.
Read more about this topic: Harrow West (UK Parliament Constituency)
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