Poplar and Limehouse
Borough constituency for theHouse of Commons
Boundary of Poplar and Limehouse inGreater London
County	Greater London
Electorate	75,814 (2023)[1]
Major settlements	Canary Wharf,Limehouse,Poplar,Wapping
Current constituency
Created	2010
Member of Parliament	Apsana Begum (Labour)
Seats	One
Created from	Poplar & Canning Town,Bethnal Green & Bow

Poplar and Limehouse is aconstituency^{[n 1]} which was first created in 2010. It has been represented in theHouse of Commons of theUK Parliament since 2019 byApsana Begum, aLabour Party MP.^{[n 2]} Begum was suspended from theParliamentary Labour Party on 23 July 2024 for voting to scrap thetwo child benefit cap. She then sat as anIndependent, before being readmitted to Labour in September 2025.

Political history

The predecessors to this constituency (area electing MPs to the House of Commons) (see history of boundaries) since 1992 have electedLabour Party representatives. In 2010,Jim Fitzpatrick had a majority of 12.9% over the runner-upConservative Party candidate.

The 2015 re-election of Fitzpatrick made the seat the 66th safest of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority.^[2]

In 2019,Apsana Begum, selected to succeed the retiring Fitzpatrick as Labour's candidate, beat the runner-upConservative Party candidate by 28,904 votes.^[3] This was more thanJim Fitzpatrick’s 27,712 vote majority^[4] at the 2017 general election, though the majority size in terms of vote share remained stable at 47.2%, and Labour's vote share declined.

Map of boundaries 2010-2024

Parliament accepted theBoundary Commission'sFifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which proposed the seat's creation for the2010 general election, since when it has consisted of the followingelectoral wards:

• Blackwall andCubitt Town,Bromley-by-Bow,East India andLansbury,Limehouse,Mile End East,Millwall,St Katharine’s andWapping, andShadwellwithin theLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets

• Before 2010, this constituency would map into all but the north-east of the oldPoplar and Canning Town constituency, plus the western end of Shadwell Ward and in the west the whole of St Katharine's & Wapping Ward, formerly parts ofBethnal Green and Bow.
  • The areas of the old constituency that were in theLondon Borough of Newham were removed and transferred toEast Ham (5.1% of Poplar and Canning Town) andWest Ham (24.9%).^[5]

Nomenclature

Alternative names, including "Tower Hamlets South" and "Poplar and Millwall" were rejected following public consultation.^{[citation needed]}

Local authority boundary review

Following a review of ward boundaries in Tower Hamlets which became effective in May 2014,^[6] the contents (but not the boundaries) of the constituency were changed to:

• The London Borough of Tower Hamlets wards ofBlackwall and Cubitt Town,Bromley North,Bromley South,Canary Wharf,Island Gardens,Lansbury,Limehouse,Mile End,Poplar,St Katharine's and Wapping, andShadwell; and a small part ofWhitechapel ward.

Further to the2023 periodic review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the2024 general election, the composition of the constituency was reduced to bring the electorate within the permitted range. Shadwell and part of the Whitechapel wards were transferred to the re-established seat ofBethnal Green and Stepney, and the Bromley North ward was moved to the newly created constituency ofStratford and Bow.^[7]

The constituency and its predecessor seats covering theIsle of Dogs have consistently been won by the Labour Party since the 1920s. The district has changed vastly over this time, and great wealth and considerable poverty now co-exist side by side as an example of income inequality.

Once home to shipping and heavy industry, theDocklands area was derelict for many years, before redevelopment began in the late-1980s. Now the area aroundCanary Wharf is one of the country's largest financial districts and has several landmark skyscrapers, such asOne Canada Square.

The redevelopment of the Docklands has led to the construction of luxury housing in the constituency, which has somewhat altered the demographics. However, in parts of the Isle of Dogs and in the areas north, east and west ofPoplar, there are still areas of high deprivation.

At the end of 2012, 6% of the population of the constituency were unemployment benefit claimants, ranking sixth amongLondon seats (the highest percentage wasTottenham at 7.9%), and above the London-wide average of 3.9%.^[8]

In the 2016 EU referendum, like the majority of London; the constituency voted 65.79% for Remain.^[9]

The constituency is religiously diverse: 38.8% of residents areMuslim, 24.2%Christian, 2.8%Hindu, and 1.0%Buddhist. 24.8% claimed no religious affiliation.^[10]

General election 2019: Poplar and Limehouse^[14][15][16]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Apsana Begum	38,660	63.1	−4.2
	Conservative	Sheun Oke	9,756	15.9	−4.2
	Liberal Democrats	Andrew Cregan	8,832	14.4	+7.7
	Green	Neil Jameson	2,159	3.5	+1.8
	Brexit Party	Catherine Cui	1,493	2.4	N/A
	Independent	Andy Erlam	376	0.6	N/A
Majority			28,904	47.2
Turnout			61,276	66.7	−0.6
Registered electors			91,836
	Labourhold		Swing	0.0

*Served as an MP in the 2005–2010 Parliament

• List of parliamentary constituencies in London

• Politics Resources (Election results from 1922 onwards)
• Electoral Calculus (Election results from 1955 onwards)
• Tim Archer
• Jim Fitzpatrick
• Jonathan Fryer
• George Galloway
• Andrew Osborne
• Jim Thornton
• Kabir Mahmud
• Documentary on the 2010 election byCatch21
• Poplar and Limehouse UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) atMapIt UK
• Poplar and Limehouse UK Parliament constituency (boundaries from June 2024) atMapIt UK

51°30′N0°01′W / 51.50°N 0.02°W /51.50; -0.02

• Limehouse
• Parliamentary constituencies in London
• Politics of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
• Poplar, London
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 2010

• Webarchive template wayback links
• CS1: unfit URL
• Wikipedia articles incorporating an LRPP-MP template with two unnamed parameters
• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2022
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from December 2024
• Coordinates on Wikidata
• Pages using the Kartographer extension