Battersea
Borough constituency for theHouse of Commons
Boundary of Battersea inGreater London for the 2024 general election
County	Greater London
Population	110,400 (2022)[1]
Electorate	71,949 (March 2020)[2]
Borough	Wandsworth
Current constituency
Created	1983
Member of Parliament	Marsha de Cordova (Labour)
Seats	One
Created from	Battersea North andBattersea South
1885–1918
Seats	One
Type of constituency	Borough constituency
Created from	Mid Surrey
Replaced by	Battersea North andBattersea South

Battersea is aconstituency^{[n 1]} inGreater London represented in theHouse of Commons of theUK Parliament since2017 byMarsha de Cordova of theLabour Party.^{[n 2]}

The seat has had two periods of existence (1885–1918 and 1983 to date). 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-yearbellwether.

In the2016 referendum to leave theEuropean Union, the constituencyvoted to remain by an estimated 77%, the highest by a constituency with aConservativeMember of Parliament (MP) at the time.^[3]

The Battersea constituency is a largely residential inner-city area ofsouth London and covers the north-eastern part of theBorough of Wandsworth. It contains the districts ofBattersea andNine Elms and stretches south to include parts ofBalham.

Battersea is arailway hub and containsClapham Junction, the busiest railway interchange in the country.^[4] Residents of the constituency are, on average, younger and wealthier than the rest of London, and considerably more so than the rest of the country. The average house price is almost three times the national average, and residents of Battersea are far more likely to bedegree-educated and work in professional jobs than the rest of the United Kingdom.^[5] The constituency is more ethnically diverse than the national average, but less so than the rest of London; 68% of residents areWhite, 12% areBlack and 9% areAsian.^[6]

At themost recent borough council election in 2022, voters in central Battersea electedLabour Party councillors, whilst Nine Elms and the areas south of Clapham Junction were won byConservatives. The constituency voted overwhelmingly to remain in theEuropean Union in the2016 referendum, with an estimated 77% of voters opposingBrexit.^[7] This makes Battersea one of the top 15 remain-supporting constituencies out of 650 in the country.^[5]

Map of boundaries from 2024

The seat covers the north-eastern third of theLondon Borough of Wandsworth. As drawn and redrawn since 1983, it includes centralWandsworth and in the same way asChelsea on the opposite bank, it adjoins theThames before it flows through central London.

It takes in all of the district of Battersea, including its largeBattersea Park (which hosts frequent live entertainment events and seasonal festivals), riverside andLondon Heliport, and stretches eastwards to includeNine Elms. Surrounding Battersea Park, it includes Queenstown, large neighbourhoods of Battersea Town,^{[n 3]} and, going westwards, it includes most ofWandsworth town, including the riverside,Town Hall and East Hill.^{[n 4]} Battersea also stretches south betweenWandsworth Common andClapham Common to includeBalham Ward and the eastern end of Balham (the west, for general elections, being placed since 1983 inTooting).

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.^[8]

1983–2010: TheLondon Borough of Wandsworth wards of Balham, Fairfield, Latchmere, Northcote, Queenstown, St John, St Mary's Park and Shaftesbury.

St John Ward was abolished for the2002 Wandsworth elections.^[9][10] St John was thus not in use at the next general election in 2005.

For that general election, the seat included a small part of Wandsworth Town (the majority being inTooting constituency) and most of Fairfield (a small part being inPutney).^[11]

2010–2024: The London Borough of Wandsworth wards of Balham, Fairfield, Latchmere, Northcote, Queenstown, St Mary's Park and Shaftesbury.

2024–present: Following to the2023 review of Westminster constituencies, which was based on the ward boundaries in place at 1 December 2020, the composition of the constituency from the2024 general election was reduced to bring it in within the permitted electoral range by transferring the majority of the Fairfield ward (polling districts FFA, FFB and FFC) toPutney. Polling district FFD was retained.^[12]

Following a local government boundary review which came into effect in May 2022, the Fairfield ward was largely replaced by the Wandsworth Town ward.^[13][14] The constituency now comprises the following wards of the London Borough of Wandsworth from the 2024 general election:

• Balham (majority); Battersea Park; Falconbrook; Lavender; Nine Elms; Northcote; Shaftesbury & Queenstown; St Mary's (most); Wandsworth Town (part).

TheRedistribution of Seats Act 1885 provided that the Constituency was to consist of-

• "No. 2 Ward of Battersea Parish,
• No. 3 Ward of Battersea Parish, and
• 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."^[15]

Battersea constituency was originally created in 1885. From 1892 to 1918 the seat was held by trade union leaderJohn Burns who served as a Minister (of the Crown) in the Liberal Cabinets of SirHenry Campbell-Bannerman andH. H. Asquith from 1905 until 1914.

The constituency was split in 1918 into:

• Battersea North, which included the cheap housing accompanyingBattersea Power Station and railway-works focused Nine Elms;^[16] it saw gradual replacement in its lifespan to overcrowded terraces, and had only four years of a Conservative MP (from 1931), gradually becoming a very safe Labour seat from 1935 until 1979.

• Battersea South had average-middle income and few pockets ofslum clearance, and was far more marginal than its northern counterpart. It saw 38 years of a Conservative MP, lastly from 1959 to 1964, without electing one during new latter-day Conservative governments which came to power in 1970 and 1979, held by the Labour Party, though mostly by narrow majorities.

The two seats have been rejoined since 1983, such that some areas of Battersea South became part of the adjoiningTooting seat.Alf Dubs (Labour), before the election the incumbent for Battersea South, won Battersea in 1983. ConservativeJohn 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, when it was recaptured by the Conservatives'Jane Ellison. The constituency's bellwether status was broken in 2017 whenMarsha de Cordova won for Labour. She retained the seat in 2019 and again in 2024, when she achieved a records majority of 25.6%.

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.^[17]

In the bookThings 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 the branch suffered a net loss at every local election and, in 1987, lost their MP,Alf Dubs.

Benefiting from an exclusivity arrangement, the oldBattersea North was one of two seats in London to have had aCommunist 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. TheBattersea Labour Club (a drinking club not directly connected with the political party) had a notice on its notice board up until the 1980s banning Communists from admission to the club.

General election 2024: Battersea^[19]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Marsha de Cordova	22,983	48.8	+2.4
	Conservative	Tom Pridham	10,944	23.2	–12.2
	Liberal Democrats	Francis Chubb	4,826	10.3	–4.8
	Green	Joe Taylor	4,239	9.0	+6.5
	Reform	Barry Edwards	2,825	6.0	+5.4
	Workers Party	Daniel Smith	499	1.1	N/A
	Rejoin EU	Georgina Burford-Connole	401	0.9	N/A
	Independent	Jake Thomas	216	0.5	N/A
	SDP	Ed Dampier	149	0.3	N/A
Majority			12,039	25.6	+14.6
Turnout			47,082	64.7	–11.6
Registered electors			72,767
	Labourhold		Swing	7.3

General election 2019: Battersea^[21]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Marsha de Cordova	27,290	45.5	0.4
	Conservative	Kim Caddy	21,622	36.1	5.4
	Liberal Democrats	Mark Gitsham	9,150	15.3	7.3
	Green	Lois Davis	1,529	2.5	0.9
	Brexit Party	Jake Thomas	386	0.6	New
Majority			5,668	9.5	5.0
Turnout			59,977	75.6	4.6
Registered electors			79,309
	Labourhold		Swing	2.5

Morgan sought re-election after questions arose about a government contract his firm held.

• List of parliamentary constituencies in London

Further reading

• British Parliamentary Election Results 1885–1918, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1974)
• Debrett’s Illustrated Heraldic and Biographical House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1886
• Debrett’s House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1901
• Debrett’s House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1918

• Politics Resources (Election results from 1922 onwards)
• Electoral Calculus (Election results from 1955 onwards)
• Battersea UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 1997 – April 2010) atMapIt UK
• Battersea UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) atMapIt UK
• Battersea UK Parliament constituency (boundaries from June 2024) atMapIt UK

• Battersea
• Parliamentary constituencies in London
• Politics of the London Borough of Wandsworth
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1885
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1918
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1983

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