Finchley and Golders Green (UK Parliament constituency)

1997–2010: The London Borough of Barnet wards of Childs Hill, East Finchley, Finchley, Garden Suburb, Golders Green, St Paul's, and Woodhouse.

2010–present: As above; less St Paul's, plus West Finchley and replacing Finchley with Finchley Church End.

The constituency covers Finchley, Golders Green, Childs Hill and Hampstead Garden Suburb in the London Borough of Barnet. It was created in 1997 largely replacing the abolished constituency of Finchley—plus major parts of abolished Hendon South, less some of its wards transferred to the Chipping Barnet seat which covers Barnet. Specifically the creation saw the removal of Friern Barnet and the addition of Golders Green, Childs Hill and Hampstead Garden Suburb.

Most of this zone was in Finchley (abolished), created in 1918, most famously represented by former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from 1959 to 1992; reshaping meant that she never re-won as large a majority as 1959, and was re-elected by a 10 per cent margin in 1974. She nonetheless won 8,000 and 9,000 majorities, 20 per cent margins, at the three general elections throughout her premiership.

Since the nominal result at the 1992 general election, and officially from its creation, the seat has been a national bellwether.

The 2015 result gave the seat the 65th most marginal majority of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority.[2]

The 2019 result saw Labour's share of the vote decline by 19.6% as the party dropped to third place. This was the 8th worst decline, among the 630 Labour candidates. The Liberal Democrats, who came second in the seat for the first time, increased their vote share by 25.3%, the third-largest increase of their candidates. They were partly helped by the Green Party's choice to stand aside locally via the Unite to Remain electoral pact.[3]

Hampstead Garden Suburb viewed from the Hampstead Heath Extension in Finchley & Golders Green. Visible on the skyline, from left to right, are the Grade I listed Free Church and St Jude's Church as well as the Henrietta Barnett School.

The area is relatively green and hilly for London and has many tube stations. Finchley and Golders Green were overwhelmingly built on in the first half of the 20th century when at the fringe of London. The area has since the heyday of the railways had little industry or large headquarters of its own, the non-commuting economy being in public service, high street retail, leisure and hospitality, domestic/commercial premises tradespeople, plus home-based media, digital economy and arts workers. Commuters take in many people in the financial, medical and legal professions and some people ancillary to central London's diverse economy.

In southern parts of the London Borough of Barnet, private – and one-family – housing still exceeds the London average; houses tend to have gardens exceeding their footprint yet there are too many older, subdivided, townhouses and shared or modest-size family flats. The proportion of social and assured or supported rental housing is lower than the London average. Most residents have quite high incomes largely to meet the cost of mortgages and rent, are very well educated, and middle-class – it retains many Labour Party supporters in East and West Finchley. Over 20% of residents are Jewish, the highest of any seat.[4]

According to Rallings and Thrasher, the boundary changes which came into force for the general election of 2010 meant that this seat notionally already had a Conservative majority, albeit a very small one.[6]

• Finchley (UK Parliament constituency), approximate predecessor
• Hendon South (UK Parliament constituency), half of which was merged with Finchley
• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London

Notes

References

• Politics Resources (Election results from 1922 onwards)
• Electoral Calculus (Election results from 1955 onwards)