The seat has had two periods of existence (1885–1918 and 1983 to date). In the first Parliament after the seat's re-creation it was Labour-represented, bucking the national result, thereafter from 1987 until 2017 the affiliation of the winning candidate was that of the winning party nationally – a 30-year bellwether.
The Battersea constituency is a largely residential inner-city area of south London and covers the north-eastern part of the Borough of Wandsworth. It contains the districts of Battersea and Nine Elms and stretches south to include parts of Balham.
Battersea is a railway hub and contains Clapham Junction, the busiest railway interchange in the country.[4] Residents of the constituency are, on average, younger and wealthier than the rest of London, and considerably more so than the rest of the country. The average house price is almost three times the national average, and residents of Battersea are far more likely to be degree-educated and work in professional jobs than the rest of the United Kingdom.[5] The constituency is more ethnically diverse than the national average, but less so than the rest of London; 68% of residents are White, 12% are Black and 9% are Asian.[6]
At the most recent borough council election in 2022, voters in central Battersea elected Labour Party councillors, whilst Nine Elms and the areas south of Clapham Junction were won by Conservatives. The constituency voted overwhelmingly to remain in the European Union in the 2016 referendum, with an estimated 77% of voters opposing Brexit.[7] This makes Battersea one of the top 15 remain-supporting constituencies out of 650 in the country.[5]
Boundaries
Map of boundaries from 2024
The seat covers the north-eastern third of the London Borough of Wandsworth. As drawn and redrawn since 1983, it includes central Wandsworth and in the same way as Chelsea on the opposite bank, it adjoins the Thames before it flows through central London.
It takes in all of the district of Battersea, including its large Battersea Park (which hosts frequent live entertainment events and seasonal festivals), riverside and London Heliport, and stretches eastwards to include Nine Elms. Surrounding Battersea Park, it includes Queenstown, large neighbourhoods of Battersea Town,[n 3] and, going westwards, it includes most of Wandsworth town, including the riverside, Town Hall and East Hill.[n 4] Battersea also stretches south between Wandsworth Common and Clapham Common to include Balham Ward and the eastern end of Balham (the west, for general elections, being placed since 1983 in Tooting).
1885–1918: Wards 2 and 3 of Battersea Parish, and that part of No. 4 Ward bounded on the south by Battersea Rise, and on the east by St John's Road.[8]
1983–2010: The London Borough of Wandsworth wards of Balham, Fairfield, Latchmere, Northcote, Queenstown, St John, St Mary's Park and Shaftesbury.
St John Ward was abolished for the 2002 Wandsworth elections.[9][10] St John was thus not in use at the next general election in 2005.
For that general election, the seat included a small part of Wandsworth Town (the majority being in Tooting constituency) and most of Fairfield (a small part being in Putney).[11]
2010–2024: The London Borough of Wandsworth wards of Balham, Fairfield, Latchmere, Northcote, Queenstown, St Mary's Park and Shaftesbury.
2024–present: Following to the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, which was based on the ward boundaries in place at 1 December 2020, the composition of the constituency from the 2024 general election was reduced to bring it in within the permitted electoral range by transferring the majority of the Fairfield ward (polling districts FFA, FFB and FFC) to Putney. Polling district FFD was retained.[12]
Following a local government boundary review which came into effect in May 2022, the Fairfield ward was largely replaced by the Wandsworth Town ward.[13][14] The constituency now comprises the following wards of the London Borough of Wandsworth from the 2024 general election:
Balham (majority); Battersea Park; Falconbrook; Lavender; Nine Elms; Northcote; Shaftesbury & Queenstown; St Mary's (most); Wandsworth Town (part).
History
Major events
Battersea in the Metropolitan Board of Works area, showing "Borough of Battersea" boundaries used from 1885 to 1918 of Battersea itself
So much of No. 4 Ward of Battersea Parish as lies to the north of a line drawn along the centre of Battersea Rise, and to the west of a line drawn along the centre of the St. John's Road."[15]
Battersea constituency was originally created in 1885. From 1892 to 1918 the seat was held by trade union leader John Burns who served as a Minister (of the Crown) in the Liberal Cabinets of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and H. H. Asquith from 1905 until 1914.
The constituency was split in 1918 into:
Battersea North, which included the cheap housing accompanying Battersea Power Station and railway-works focused Nine Elms;[16] it saw gradual replacement in its lifespan to overcrowded terraces, and had only four years of a Conservative MP (from 1931), gradually becoming a very safe Labour seat from 1935 until 1979.
Battersea South had average-middle income and few pockets of slum clearance, and was far more marginal than its northern counterpart. It saw 38years of a Conservative MP, lastly from 1959 to 1964, without electing one during new latter-day Conservative governments which came to power in 1970 and 1979, held by the Labour Party, though mostly by narrow majorities.
The two seats have been rejoined since 1983, such that some areas of Battersea South became part of the adjoining Tooting seat. Alf Dubs (Labour), before the election the incumbent for Battersea South, won Battersea in 1983. Conservative John Bowis won in the next elections, 1987 and 1992. Martin Linton, a Labour politician, took it back in 1997 and held the seat until 2010, when it was recaptured by the Conservatives' Jane Ellison. The constituency's bellwether status was broken in 2017 when Marsha de Cordova won for Labour. She retained the seat in 2019 and again in 2024, when she achieved a records majority of 25.6%.
Minor events
In 2001, the candidate T.E Barber used the candidate description "No fruit out of context party", and advocated the end of, amongst other crimes against food, pineapples on pizza.[17]
In the book Things Can Only Get Better: Eighteen Miserable Years in the Life of a Labour Supporter, John O'Farrell describes his experiences of being the secretary of Queenstown Branch of the Battersea Labour party, during which time the branch suffered a net loss at every local election and, in 1987, lost their MP, Alf Dubs.
Benefiting from an exclusivity arrangement, the old Battersea North was one of two seats in London to have had a Communist MP: Shapurji Saklatvala represented the area from 1922 to 1929. A wealthy aristocratic Indian, he was among the five Communists elected to the national chamber in its history and was the third of the young Socialist Labour/Communist/Labour parties from an ethnic minority background. At first, Saklatvala had local Labour party support and was also a member of that party but then stood as a Communist in 1924 with local Labour party backing. The head office of the less radical Labour party mandated an official Labour candidate stand against him in 1929. The Battersea Labour Club (a drinking club not directly connected with the political party) had a notice on its notice board up until the 1980s banning Communists from admission to the club.
↑ Queenstown Road Battersea is passed through by the South West Main Line. Nine Elms constitutes a large 2010s mixed use neighbourhood including the landmark converted Battersea Power Station by the River Thames. The United States Embassy is part of the redevelopment.
↑ "Chap. 23. Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885". The Public General Acts of the United Kingdom passed in the forty-eighth and forty-ninth years of the reign of Queen Victoria. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode. 1885. pp.111–198.
↑ Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, Sixth Schedule
↑ Booth Poverty Map[permanent dead link] For prostitution and other "Lowest class: Vicious and semi-criminal" classification see Cumberland Street written notes: Archived 2007-08-24 at the Wayback Machine and a small cluster of mean streets by the railways in Nine Elms
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