Bethnal Green & Bow (constituency)

Bethnal Green & Bow is a Parliamentary Constituency in the House of Commons, created in 1997 .

Boundaries

The seat is centred on the northern part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, taking in much of Bethnal Green, Bow and Stepney. It includes much of the traditional East End, the Tower of London and Brick Lane

Prior to 1997 the equivalent seat was Bethnal Green & Stepney.

Westminster elections

The Member of Parliament since the seat was formed in 1997 is Oona King of the Labour Party.

Politics and History of the constituency

For the history of the constituency prior to 1997 please see Bethnal Green & Stepney (constituency).

Bethnal Green has a reputation for being a bastion of the Labour Party. The last time a Conservative was elected at any level in the area was in 1931. However there has been a strong challenge from the Liberl Party. The old Bethnal Green South West constituency was the last seat in Inner London to have a Liberal MP until the 1980s, whilst in more recent years the Liberals, and now the Liberal Democrats have emerged as strong challengers at the local government level. Between 1986 and 1994 they controlled Tower Hamlets council, but this proved a deeply controversial period, witnessing splits in the local party and much criticism from outside.

The seat also has a high level of non-white population, estimated at around 40% of the population. The largest non-white community are Bangladeshi.

In recent years the Westminster elections have seen some results that have shocked commentators outside the constituency. In the 1997 general election, the Conservative Party received a swing to them, despite almost every other constituency in the country experiencing a landslide against them. The Liberal Democrats fell to third place, whilst there were also strong votes for the continuing Liberal Party, the British National Party and several independents. The Labour Party candidate, Oona King, was new and many felt that a "New Labour" candidate had been imposed on the constituency, leading to a protracted public row over her selection. The Liberal Democrats were still divided and suffering amidst fallout from their administration of Tower Hamlets, with the continuning Liberal Party candidate garnering support from the division. It is also believed that as King is both Jewish and Afro-Carribean this did not play well with Muslim and Asian voters - the Conservative candidate Kabir Choudhury was both Asian and Muslim and this may have contributed to his advance - it is estimated that many locally vote on community and ethnic lines.

The 2001 general election saw most parties that stood improve their vote due to fewer independent candidates and no Liberal candidate, though the British National Party's vote plummetted. However the Labour vote has not recovered to its previous levels. In more recent local elections the area has seen high votes for RESPECT The Unity Coalition, who topped the poll in Tower Hamlets in the 2004 European Parliamentary elections and subsequently won their first local council seat in a by-election. The founder of RESPECT, George Galloway has announced that he will contest Bethnal Green & Bow at the next general election and this could produce another surprising result.