Hammersmith and Fulham Matthew Carrington 21,420 25,262 4,728 0 1,593 Fulham 28,487 21,313 4,553 0 820 Conservative In the extensive boundary changes in London which come into force at the forthcoming general election, the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham has been reduced in representation. Previously it had consisted of two undersized seats, but now the constituency of Fulham has been merged with the southern part of the Hammersmith seat, leaving the northern part of the latter (Shepherds Bush) to be placed with parts of the neighbouring Borough in an Ealing, Acton and Shepherds Bush constituency. In 1992 Fulham returned a Conservative with a majority of 6,500, while Hammersmith elected a Labour MP with a lead of 4,750. It sounds, then, as if the new Hammersmith and Fulham is likely to be an extremely close contest. However, this impression may be misleading, and should be corrected. The Conservative MP for Fulham, Matthew Carrington, actually has a better chance than many of his colleagues of being returned to sit in the next House of Commons. There are three main reasons for this. First, Fulham itself, consisting of tightly packed housing in the loop of the Thames, has continued to be gentrified as middle-class professionals move into convenient housing close to the centre of London. Fulham has been moving right for a couple of decades. Second, less than half of the former Hammersmith seat has been included in the one under discussion here. Thirdly, that is the more Tory part of the former Hammersmith, including some good residential areas, around Brook Green for example. Unless Labour win a landslide victory of an at least 60-seat overall majority, we should expect to see the Conservatives win Hammersmith and Fulham.

	1,994	4.36	9.03	48
	252	0.55	11.17	5
	0	0.00	11.25	0
	32	0.07	14.70	0
	30,725	67.22	10.45	643
	517	1.13	2.81	40
	637	1.39	8.01	17
	0	0.00	15.25	0
	0	0.00	7.13	0
	11,071	24.22	10.17	238