The first incarnation of the constituency wascreated for the 1918 general election. By 1941, the estimated electorate reached 217,900.[3] For the 1945 general election, the areas of the constituency were thus divided betweenNorth andSouth new entities and contributions to other new seats, including the principal part ofHarrow East. The 1918–1945 was a period of near-full adult franchise and saw the most significant adult population increase nationally within the constituency, this coincided with a period of major residential building locally.
In the boundary change legislation passed to implement theFifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies for the 1997 general election, the London Borough of Barnet's parliamentary representation was reduced from four seats to three and the Hendon North constituency was combined with a northern part of the Hendon South constituency, creating the presentHendon constituency. A south-eastern swathe of former Hendon South was placed intoFinchley and Golders Green. Within 10% of the averageelectorate, the seat avoidedmalapportionment that would otherwise exist by way of two undersized constituencies.
Including the period of division of the present area (1945—97) the various general elections up to 1997 were won byConservatives, except for the 1945 victory ofBarbara Ayrton-Gould (Labour), in Hendon North (1945–50). The lastLiberal orLiberal Democrat to serve the area of either Hendon seat was in 1910. Only these three parties have won the seat or its predecessors.
The constituency has been a Conservative-Labourbellwether since 1997.Andrew Dismore won the seat in 1997 as part of a nationwide landslide victory for the Labour Party. Matthew Offord won the seat for the Conservatives in 2010 by only 106 votes. The 2015 result gave the seat the 37th most marginal majority of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority.[4]
The constituency includes the most deprived areas of the generally affluentLondon Borough of Barnet –Colindale,West Hendon andBurnt Oak.[5] It is more ethnically diverse than the other Barnet constituencies and has a large Jewish population.[6]
The constituency covered the Urban Districts of Hendon and Kingsbury, and Hendon Rural District.
No national reviews took place between theRepresentation of the People Act 1918 which enfranchised this constituency and the next such Act in 1945. Later national reviews took place by the newly established Boundary Commissions for the four countries of United Kingdom for the elections of 1950, 1974, 1983, 1997 and 2010. As can be seen from the map, during the early period the seat spanned the area made up of the present seat and primarily the two neighbours to east and west,Chipping Barnet andHarrow East.
^Aborough constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer).
^As with all constituencies, Hendon elects oneMember of Parliament (MP) by thefirst past the post system of election at least every five years. The first incarnation of Hendon was among the vast majority after 1918 which elected one MP.
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