| Bethnal Green and Stepney | |
|---|---|
| Borough constituency for theHouse of Commons | |
 Boundary of Bethnal Green and Stepney in Greater London for the 2024 general election | |
| County | Greater London |
| Electorate | 77,000 (March 2020)[1] |
| Current constituency | |
| Created | 2024 |
| Member of Parliament | Rushanara Ali (Labour) |
| Created from | Bethnal Green and Bow (the most part) &Poplar and Limehouse (smaller part) |
| 1983–1997 | |
| Seats | One |
| Created from | Bethnal Green and Bow andStepney and Poplar |
| Replaced by | Bethnal Green and Bow (the most part) Poplar and Canning Town (small parts) |
Bethnal Green and Stepney is aparliamentary constituency inGreater London, which returns oneMember of Parliament (MP) to theHouse of Commons of theParliament of the United Kingdom.
The seat first existed between1983 and1997 and was re-established under the2023 review of Westminster constituencies which came into effect for the2024 general election. In the intervening period, the seat was largely replaced byBethnal Green and Bow.[2]
The constituency is represented byRushanara Ali who had been MP for Bethnal Green and Bow from 2010 to 2024.
The constituency is located in theEast End of London within theBorough of Tower Hamlets. It contains the areas ofBethnal Green,Stepney,Whitechapel and parts ofLimehouse.
Previously an impoverished area, this part of London was rebuilt and developed afterthe Blitz ofWorld War II. Compared to the rest of London, residents are generally younger, more deprived and considerably less likely to own a house or car.[3] Bethnal Green and Stepney contains the UK's largest community ofBangladeshis, who make up 42% of the constituency's population.[4]
At themost recent borough council election in 2022, voters in the constituency were divided between theLabour Party and the localAspire party. An estimated 70% of voters supported remaining in theEuropean Union in the2016 referendum, one of the highest rates in the country.[3]
In its first incarnation, from 1983 to its abolition in 1997, the constituency was only ever represented by the former cabinet ministerPeter Shore, who held the seat for theLabour Party. Shore was noted for his opposition to the United Kingdom's entry into theEuropean Economic Community.[5]
In 1981, 24% of the constiuency were non-White.[6] The constiuency had the highest concentration of those born in Bangladesh (11.7% of the population) in 1981.[7]
The constituency was made up of nine electoral wards of theLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets: Holy Trinity, Redcoat, St Dunstan's, St James', St Katharine's, St Mary's, St Peter's, Spitalfields, and Weavers. It was abolished in 1997, and largely replaced by the largerBethnal Green and Bow constituency, in line with theBoundary Commission's recommendation that one seat should be lost in the paired boroughs of Tower Hamlets andNewham. 297 electors moved to the newCities of London and Westminster constituency.
Further to the 2023 boundary review, the composition of the constituency is as follows (as they existed on 1 December 2020):
Apart fromShadwell and a small part ofWhitechapel ward, previously part ofPoplar and Limehouse, the constituency replacedBethnal Green and Bow – excludingBow, which was included in the newly created seat ofStratford and Bow. It is the smallest constituency in the UK by geographical area.
| Election | Member[9] | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Peter Shore | Labour | |
| 1997 | constituency abolished: seeBethnal Green and Bow | ||
| 2024 | Rushanara Ali | Labour | |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Rushanara Ali | 15,896 | 34.1 |  39.4 | |
| Independent | Ajmal Masroor | 14,207 | 30.5 | N/A | |
| Green | Phoebe Gill | 6,391 | 13.7 |  9.5 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Rabina Khan | 4,777 | 10.2 | 0.9 | |
| Reform | Peter Sceats | 1,964 | 4.2 | 2.2 | |
| Conservative | Oscar Reaney | 1,920 | 4.1 | 6.0 | |
| Animal Welfare | Vanessa Hudson | 348 | 0.7 | 0.2 | |
| Independent | Sham Uddin | 325 | 0.7 | N/A | |
| Independent | Md Somon Ahmed | 315 | 0.7 | N/A | |
| Independent | Reggie Adams | 271 | 0.6 | N/A | |
| SDP | Jon Mabbutt | 233 | 0.5 | N/A | |
| Majority | 1,689 | 3.6 | 59.8 | ||
| Turnout | 46,647 | 56.9 | 8.0 | ||
| Registered electors | 81,922 | ||||
| Labourhold | |||||
| 2019 notional result[a][11] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Vote | % | |
| Labour | 36,720 | 73.5 | |
| Conservative | 5,065 | 10.1 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 4,634 | 9.3 | |
| Green | 2,101 | 4.2 | |
| Brexit Party | 992 | 2.0 | |
| Others | 439 | 0.9 | |
| Majority | 31,655 | 63.4 | |
| Turnout | 49,951 | 64.9 | |
| Electorate | 77,000 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Peter Shore | 20,350 | 55.8 | +7.5 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Jeremy Shaw | 8,120 | 22.3 | −9.5 | |
| Conservative | Jane Emmerson | 6,507 | 17.9 | −1.3 | |
| BNP | Richard Edmonds | 1,310 | 3.6 | New | |
| Communist (PCC) | Stanley Kelsey | 156 | 0.4 | −0.3 | |
| Majority | 12,230 | 33.5 | +17.0 | ||
| Turnout | 36,443 | 65.5 | +7.9 | ||
| Labourhold | Swing | +8.6 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Peter Shore | 15,490 | 48.3 | −2.7 | |
| Liberal | Jeremy Shaw | 10,206 | 31.8 | +1.4 | |
| Conservative | Olga Maitland | 6,176 | 19.2 | +5.2 | |
| Communist | Sarah Gasquoine | 232 | 0.7 | −0.1 | |
| Majority | 5,284 | 16.5 | −4.1 | ||
| Turnout | 32,104 | 57.6 | +1.9 | ||
| Labourhold | Swing | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Peter Shore | 15,740 | 51.0 | ||
| Liberal | Stephen Charters | 9,382 | 30.4 | ||
| Conservative | Demitri Argyropulo | 4,323 | 14.0 | ||
| National Front | Victor Clark | 800 | 2.6 | ||
| Communist | J. Rees | 243 | 0.8 | ||
| Independent | B. N. Chaudhuri | 214 | 0.7 | ||
| Independent | P. J. Mahoney | 136 | 0.4 | ||
| Majority | 6,358 | 20.6 | |||
| Turnout | 30,838 | 55.7 | |||
| Labourwin (new seat) | |||||