Before 1945 this Dagenham constituency and surrounding area was part ofthe Romford constituency. The MP for the predecessor seat since 1935,Labour's John Parker, stood again on each occasion in this smaller successor area, representing it until 1983. Parker was the last serving MP to have been elected before the Second World War, and with 48 years in Parliament, remained the longest-serving Labour MP in history untilDennis Skinner servedBolsover for 49 years. Dagenham was held byLabour since its inception and election predictions always rated it as asafe seat. The constituency shared boundaries with theDagenham electoral division for election of councillors to the Greater London Council at elections in 1973, 1977 and 1981.
The far-rightBritish National Party (BNP) was active in this area periodically and its support led to some retained deposits by polling more than 5% of the vote on several occasions. Their candidate received nearly 10% of the vote in the 2005 general election and in the 2006 local elections returned 12 councillors toBarking and Dagenham London Borough Council.
The constituency hosted shrinking skilled manual industry such as theFord Motor Company works, which downscaled production in 2001, leading to replacement distribution and warehousing businesses as well as local regeneration under theThames Gateway project from 2005 however higher than national unemployment immediately, including following the seat's abolition. (See the main successor seat,Dagenham and Rainham for statistics.) The largest-polling opposition candidate wasConservative since 1979, with theLiberal Party a greater or equal opponent in elections before that, vying for second place with that party.
