East Surrey (UK Parliament Constituency) - History

History

Often named Surrey Eastern, the constituency was created in the 1832 Reform Acts with two MPs covering an area from Peckham and southern Brixton to Lingfield and from Capel to Kingston upon Thames.

Mid parts of Surrey were selected for two MPs under the Second Reform Act from the 1868 general election. As Surrey benefitted under this Reform Act 1867, this ensured a modest level of representation was had in the old Surrey which at that time included all of South London with the exceptions of Lambeth and Southwark.

The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 went much further than the Reform Act 1832 towards equal representation and so for elections from 1885 Mid Surrey and Surrey Eastern were split into Chertsey, Croydon, Epsom, Kingston, Reigate and Wimbledon, seats taking from parts of Surrey Eastern are in bold.

In 1918 the constituency was re-established, as East Surrey taking rural and at most small suburban parts of Reigate and Croydon, for the first time sending only one MP, covering a smaller area to the south of Croydon to the Kent and West Sussex borders. East Surrey's localities include Lingfield, Oxted, Limpsfield, Godstone, Caterham and Woldingham.

In 1950, East Surrey lost Addington parish on the east fringe of Croydon to the newly-formed Croydon South constituency and its southern half to the Reigate constituency. In 1974, many electors in the north of constituency became part of Croydon South reflecting the 1965 transfer of Purley and Coulsdon to the London Borough of Croydon to the new Greater London which then replaced the London County Council. Surrey East took in much of the area to the south that had been in Reigate since 1950. Its MP until 1974, William Clark, won the new Croydon South in that year's February election. Clark's successor, Sir Geoffrey Howe, later became Chancellor of the Exchequer and Foreign Secretary in Margaret Thatcher's cabinet.