Harrow East (UK Parliament constituency)

Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox UK constituency main

Harrow East is a constituency^{[n 1]} in Greater London created in 1945 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Bob Blackman, a Conservative.^{[n 2]}

Constituency profile

Template:Update section The censuses of 2001 and 2011 show the overwhelmingly most common housing type of the area to be semi-detached houses – almost a majority – followed by mid-rise apartments (whether purpose-built or converted from older houses), then terraced houses and then detached houses. They also show a consistently lower-than-average proportion of social housing than for Greater London.^[1]

The constituency is served by three separate commuter railway lines running into central London, and has many parks and sports grounds. Few arterial roads bisect Harrow East – further east is the start of the M1 motorway, and in the middle of seats further south in north-west London are the A40 Western Avenue and North Circular Road, omitting the boundaries drawn from the arterial road-building projects of the 1940s-to-1970s period.

Harrow East has a large Hindu population, a demographic which has shifted heavily away from Labour towards the Conservatives during Blackman's tenure as MP. The Conservatives generally perform worse than Labour amongst most ethnic minority groups;^[2] it was the most ethnically diverse Conservative-held constituency in the general elections of 2015 and 2017.

History

The seat was created in 1945 and has been varied due to two sets of major ward reconfigurations and by other national boundary reforms. The predecessor seats were Hendon and to a much lesser extent Harrow.

From 1945 to 2010, it was a stronger area for the Labour Party than neighbouring Harrow West; nevertheless, the seat had been mostly held by the Conservative Party. Labour did win here in landslide victories in 1945, 1966 and 1997, and after the latter, held on in the two subsequent general elections. Commencing with the 1979 general election, and prior to the 2024 general election, the seat was a bellwether by reflecting the national result. The 2017 result produced the 29th-most marginal majority of the Conservative Party's 317 seats by percentage of majority.^[3]

The seat was regained in 2010 by the Conservative Bob Blackman on a high turnout whilst Labour's incumbent managed to hold on to Harrow West, as boundary changes had favoured Labour there. Residents in the borough include fewer people in the category of no qualifications than the national average, in 2011, at 16.8%.^[4]

In the 2024 general election, Harrow East had the second-largest percentage majority of any Conservative-held seat in the country, behind only Richmond and Northallerton, the seat of then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak; it was the only seat in the country where the Conservatives exceeded 50% of the vote.

Boundaries

Template:Maplink 1945–1950: The Urban District of Harrow wards of Kenton, Stanmore North, Stanmore South, Wealdstone North, Wealdstone South, and part of Harrow Weald ward.

1950–1955: As above, but the whole of Harrow Weald, and without Wealdstone North or Wealdstone South.

1955–1974: The Municipal Borough of Harrow wards of Belmont, Harrow Weald, Queensbury, Stanmore North and Stanmore South.

1974–1978: The London Borough of Harrow wards of Belmont, Harrow Weald, Queensbury, Stanmore North and Stanmore South.

1978–1983: The London Borough of Harrow wards of Canons, Centenary, Harrow Weald, Kenton East, Stanmore Park, Stanmore South and Wemborough.

1983–2010: The London Borough of Harrow wards of Canons, Centenary, Greenhill, Harrow Weald, Kenton East, Kenton West, Marlborough, Stanmore Park, Stanmore South, Wealdstone and Wemborough.

2010–2024: The London Borough of Harrow wards of Belmont, Canons, Edgware, Harrow Weald, Kenton East, Kenton West, Queensbury, Stanmore Park and Wealdstone.

2024–present: The London Borough of Brent ward of Queensbury, and he London Borough of Harrow wards of Belmont, Canons, Centenary, Edgware, Harrow Weald, Kenton East, Kenton West, and Stanmore.^[5]

The Borough of Brent ward of Queensbury was transferred from the abolished constituency of Brent North, thus uniting the parts of the suburb of Queensbury in Brent with those in Harrow. Other boundary changes included the transfer of Wealdstone to Harrow West.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member^[6]	Party
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1945	Frederick Skinnard	Labour
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1950	Ian Harvey	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1959 by-election	Anthony Courtney	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1966	Roy Roebuck	Labour
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1970	Hugh Dykes	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1997	Tony McNulty	Labour
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	2010	Bob Blackman	Conservative

Election results

File:Har E Election Results.png

Election results 1945-2024

Elections in the 2020s

With 53.3% of the vote, Blackman received the highest vote share for any Conservative candidate that stood in the election, and was the only Conservative elected with an absolute majority.^[7] He was one of three Conservative MPs to be re-elected with increased majorities.^[8]

Template:Election box winning candidate with party link

General election 2024: Harrow East^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	<templatestyles src="Template:Tooltip/styles.css" />±%Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
	Script error: No such module "Political party".	Primesh Patel	13,786	28.9	Script error: No such module "String".
	Script error: No such module "Political party".	Roger Clark	2,188	4.6	Script error: No such module "String".
	Independent	Sabira Lakha	2,097	4.4	Script error: No such module "String".
	Script error: No such module "Political party".	Seb Newsam	2,006	4.2	Script error: No such module "String".
	Script error: No such module "Political party".	Reetendra Nath Banerji	1,511	3.2	Script error: No such module "String".
	Script error: No such module "Political party".	Sarajulhaq Parwani	723	1.5	Script error: No such module "String".
Majority			11,680	24.4	Script error: No such module "String".
Turnout			47,777	62.5	Script error: No such module "String".
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