West Ham (UK Parliament Constituency) - Politics and History of The Constituency

Politics and History of The Constituency

The area is generally considered a safe Labour seat; West Ham South had in 1892 sent Keir Hardie to the Commons. Labour's Tony Banks was MP for first Newham North West and then West Ham from 1983 until his retirement in 2005. He held the seat at the 2001 general election with nearly 70% of the vote. The constituency has been one of the fastest growing in recent years and in 2006 was the second largest constituency of all, with only the Isle of Wight having more voters. The neighbouring constituency of East Ham was the third largest constituency.

In the 1991 census just over 43% of residents were non-white. By the time of the 2001 census, whites made up 44.1% of the population, with 35.3% of residents born outside the UK. Over a quarter of the population are Afro-Caribbean. There is also a significant Asian population, many of whom are Muslims. By the time of the 2005 General Election, only seven of the 646 constituencies had more Muslims than West Ham. As a result the RESPECT Coalition targeted it for the 2005 election, hoping to benefit from opposition to the Iraq war; in the end it was not enough to unseat Labour's replacement for Banks, Lyn Brown, but they managed to take nearly 20% of the vote away from Labour.