Streatham (UK Parliament constituency)

The local government wards in the constituency are currently represented by 20 Labour councillors, 1 Conservative councillor and 3 Green councillors, including Jonathan Bartley, the leader of the opposition on Lambeth Council, and former London MEP Scott Ainslie.

Nine Liberal Democrat councillors represented the wards of Streatham Hill, Streatham Wells and St Leonard's, with one additional councillor elected at Clapham Common in 2010. All Streatham wards had been represented by the Liberal Democrats from 1990 to 2014 before Labour subsequently gained seven seats from them at the 2014 council elections. The Liberal Democrats were unsuccessful in gaining any seats back at the 2018 local elections. In a 2019 Thornton Ward by-election, the Lib Dems came within 19 votes of winning the seat.

In 2018, the Conservatives held one seat and lost two to Labour in Clapham Common by a very narrow margin, whilst the Greens took the other two seats from Labour in St Leonard's.

Political history

Streatham was for a few decades solidly Tory suburbia overall: the Conservatives won Streatham when Labour gained large majorities in 1945 and 1966, and it was the only seat in the former LCC area (Inner London) apart from the Chelsea/Kensington/Westminster/City central core to remain consistently Conservative. More recently, demographic and voting pattern changes combined with unfavourable boundary changes converted Streatham into a marginal seat, then into a mid-ranking safe Labour seat.

Streatham has modestly swung against the Conservative Party since the 1980s, even more than other similar seats in South London (such as Croydon North, Dulwich and West Norwood, Lewisham East and West).

The Conservative Party lost Streatham in 1992, having held it since 1918. The Conservative candidate was beaten into third place by a Liberal Democrat in 2001, and there were swings from Labour to the Liberal Democrats at the two subsequent general elections. In 2010, when the Labour incumbent, Keith Hill, retired and Chuka Umunna stood for the party, there was a serious Liberal Democrat campaign resulting in their best showing to date in the seat, but there was also a marginal increase in the Conservative vote share and Umunna was elected. The 2015 result was the re-election of Umunna, which made the seat the 96th safest of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority.[5]

In 2015 the Conservatives moved into second place with a sharp increase in numerical vote share, and remained there in 2017. However, in 2019, they reverted to third place behind the Liberal Democrats.

The constituency of Streatham was contested under this name at the 1918 general election, when it approximately followed the historic parish boundaries of Streatham, including a substantial part of Balham, a 19th-century founded and primarily urban parish by that time.

The constituency was carved out of the former constituency of Wandsworth in the same way as Putney, Wandsworth Central and Balham and Tooting under the Representation of the People Act 1918, the fourth major UK reform, that settled upon single member constituencies, and roughly equal electorates.

The 1918 boundaries remained unchanged until the 1965 changes to Greater London local government became reflected in the parliamentary constituencies, at the February 1974 general election. This resulted in a net reduction in the size of the area. The western district Streatham Park (location of the Streatham Conservative Club) and the remainder of Furzedown ward went into the Tooting seat.

The rest of the constituency, including the town of Streatham has since 1965 been in the London Borough of Lambeth. Three other constituencies covered Lambeth from 1974, Vauxhall, Norwood and Lambeth Central. The Clapham constituency was abolished as part of the 1974 changes. The Clapham Park area and Hyde Farm (commonly thought of as part of Balham) came into the Streatham seat, whereas the rest of Clapham went into the Vauxhall seat creating an enduring split.

On abolition of Lambeth Central at the 1983 election, the constituency gained much of southern Brixton. Following further population decline, Lambeth was paired with Southwark in the next boundary review, and from the 1997 election, Streatham constituency gained areas around Tulse Hill from the former Norwood constituency, the rest of which became part of Dulwich and West Norwood.

In the 2016 referendum on European Union membership, Streatham is estimated to have posted the highest proportion of support for Remain of any constituency, at 79.5%.

17% was the largest vote share increase in a Labour held seat for the Liberal Democrats at the 2019 general election.[8]

General election 2019: Streatham[9][10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Bell Ribeiro-Addy	30,976	54.8	13.7
	Liberal Democrats	Helen Thompson	13,286	23.5	17.0
	Conservative	Rory O’Broin	9,060	16.0	5.3
	Green	Scott Ainslie	2,567	4.5	1.5
	Brexit Party	Penelope Becker	624	1.1	N/A
Majority			17,690	31.3	15.8
Turnout			56,513	66.7	4.2
Registered electors			84,783
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 2017: Streatham[11][12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Chuka Umunna	38,212	68.5	15.5
	Conservative	Kim Caddy	11,927	21.4	3.7
	Liberal Democrats	Alexander Davies	3,611	6.5	2.5
	Green	Nicole Griffiths	1,696	3.0	5.8
	UKIP	Robert Stephenson	349	0.6	2.6
Majority			26,285	47.1	13.2
Turnout			55,795	70.9	7.8
Registered electors			78,649
	Labour hold		Swing	9.6

General election 2015: Streatham[13][14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Chuka Umunna	26,474	53.0	10.2
	Conservative	Kim Caddy	12,540	25.1	6.8
	Liberal Democrats	Amna Ahmad	4,491	9.0	26.8
	Green	Jonathan Bartley	4,421	8.9	7.1
	UKIP	Bruce Machan	1,602	3.2	N/A
	CISTA	Artificial Beast	192	0.4	N/A
	TUSC	Unjum Mirza	164	0.3	N/A
	Workers Revolutionary	Deon Gayle	49	0.1	0.2
Majority			13,934	27.9	20.9
Turnout			49,933	63.1	0.3
Registered electors			79,137
	Labour hold		Swing	1.7

NB Percentage comparions in the table above are against the notional result on the new constituency boundaries.