Kensington
Formerborough constituency for theHouse of Commons
Boundary of Kensington in Greater London
County	Greater London
Electorate	64,609 (December 2019)[1]
2010–2024
Created from	Kensington and Chelsea; Regent's Park and Kensington North
Replaced by	Kensington and Bayswater
1974–1997
Created from	Kensington North; Kensington South
Replaced by	Kensington and Chelsea; Regent's Park and Kensington North

Kensington is a formerconstituency^{[n 1]} inGreater London which first existed between 1974 and 1997 and was recreated in 2010.^{[n 2]} It was replaced by theKensington and Bayswater constituency,^[2] first contested at the2024 general election.

At the2017 general election,Emma Dent Coad gained the seat forLabour from incumbent ConservativeVictoria Borwick by the slenderest margin in England, 20 votes, the first time Kensington had been represented by aLabour MP.^[3] Dent Coad was defeated byFelicity Buchan for the Conservatives at the2019 United Kingdom general election by a narrow margin of 150 votes.

Kensington was known as the wealthiest parliamentary constituency in the whole of the United Kingdom.^[4][5][6]

Map of boundaries 2010-2024

The constituency formed for the 2010 election comprised the northern and central parts of theRoyal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in and aroundKensington and aligned similarly with the boundary of the Royal Borough of Kensington prior to its merger with the Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea. It had theelectoral wards:

• Abingdon,Brompton, Campden, Colville, Courtfield,Earls Court, Golborne,Holland, Norland,Notting Dale, Pembridge, Queen's Gate, and St Helens^{[n 3]}

From 1974 to 1983, the constituency comprised the electoral wards:

• Golborne, Holland, Norland, Pembridge, Queen's Gate, and St. Charles

From 1983 to 1997, the constituency comprised the electoral wards:

• Avondale, Campden, Colville, Golborne, Holland, Kelfield, Norland, Pembridge, Queen's Gate, and St. Charles^[7]

The first incarnation of aKensington constituency in Westminster was for theFebruary 1974 general election, derived from the fairly safe Labour seat ofKensington North, and the overwhelmingly ConservativeKensington South; this was abolished for the1997 general election. The seat was mostly replaced byRegent's Park and Kensington North which until its 2010 abolition was represented byLabour MPs, being won twice during theBlair Ministry, and was partly replaced byKensington and Chelsea which was held byMalcolm Rifkind (Conservative) until his resignation at the 2015 general election.

Summary of results (first creation)

The old seat returned Conservative MPs from 1974 up to and including its last general election in 1992. At its sole by-election in 1988 the seat was won by its smallest majority, a highlymarginal 3.4% – a by-election which saw a majority turnout and a Labour splinter party candidate, for theSocial Democratic Party (UK, 1988) achieve fourth place attracting 5% of the vote yet standing in the year of the formal amalgamation of the main SDP splinter group with the Liberal Party to form theLiberal Democrats who stood as the Social and Liberal Democrats and seven years after the formation of the officialSDP-Liberal Alliance.

The constituency was recreated by adopting theFifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies of theBoundary Commission at the2010 general election, combining elements of the two constituencies.

Summary of results (second creation)

The 2015 result was a narrower result than 2010, and gave the seat the 126th-most marginal majority of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority.^[8] The runner-up party remained the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats' share of the vote fell by 13.9% to 5.6% of votes cast.

In theJune 2017 election, three recounts occurred, the first two producing extremely close results with the latter producing a Labour majority of only 20+ votes. After the two recounts due to fatigue among the staff the counting was suspended to allow them to "rest and recuperate". The third recount gave Labour a majority of 20, the first time the constituency had become a Labour seat since its creation,^[9] and made it the Labour Party's most vulnerable seat.^[10]

Kensington is mostly residential — housing varies between the expensive apartments with manicured garden squares or terraces ofSouth Kensington, that has some of the most exclusive real estate in the world located in theWest End of London and, by contrast,North Kensington andLadbroke Grove have, for the most part, densesocial housing, tower blocks in output areas in innerWest London^{[clarification needed]} with high rankings in the 2000-compiled^{[clarification needed]} Index of Multiple Deprivation.^[11]Kensington High Street is an upmarket shopping hub,Kensington Palace is the residence of members of theRoyal Family, andKensington Palace Gardens is the site of many embassies and a few private residences of very affluent homeowners.South Kensington also bordersHyde Park and includes theScience Museum, theNatural History Museum and theVictoria and Albert.

Earls Court,Brompton,Holland Park andNotting Hill have their own characters. Earls Court is less affluent than its neighbours; while it is undergoing rapidgentrification and includes its own areas for the super-rich, there are still old hotels and bedsits around the site of the formerEarls Court Exhibition Centre, which extends into the historicallymarginalHammersmith constituency. Notting Hill is an affluent, highly cosmopolitan area which hosts theNotting Hill Carnival, led by the area'sAfro-Caribbean community. It fell on hard times in the twentieth century, being associated with low-rent flats and multiple-occupancy homes, but has since been gentrified.

In 1981, 11% of the population was non-White.^[12]

Kensington was the last constituency to be declared in the 2017 general election.^[15] The result was extremely close in Kensington, which had been considered a safe Conservative seat. After three counts on 8 and 9 June, which appeared to show Labour majorities of between 36 and 50, counting was suspended due to fatigue.^[15] The result was announced later on 9 June.^[15]

• List of parliamentary constituencies in London

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

51°30′18″N0°12′00″W / 51.505°N 0.20°W /51.505; -0.20

• Politics of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
• Parliamentary constituencies in London (historic)
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 2010
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 2024

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