Election 97

Streatham

Current MP Keith Hill
Conservative 97 9,758
Labour 97 28,181
LibDem 97 6,082
Nationalist 97 0
Other 97 0
Elected party
Streatham

Robert Waller wrote
Old constituency Streatham
Conservative 92 19,114
Labour 92 24,585
LibDem 92 4,966
Nationalist 92 0
Other 92 1,107
Elected party Labour

Once-suburban Streatham in south London stayed Tory, even in Labour's best years of 1945 and 1966 - yet the seat fell to Labour in 1992, when the nation elected a Conservative government. Boundary changes are insufficient to account for this strange behaviour. It is true that a large part of highly ethnic working-class central Brixton was added to this previously middle-class constituency in 1983 - but the Tories won the seat. The answer lies in social and political change - by 1991, over 25 per cent of Streatham's population was non-white ethnic, mainly Afro-Caribbean and mostly Labour-voting. Further, the unpopularity of the local Labour council, Lambeth, began to diminish in the late 1980s. With the addition of more of Brixton, Labour's lead should increase this time, and Labour MP Keith Hill's majority may easily double in 1997.


Super Profiles

628 1.49 9.03 17
830 1.97 11.17 18
414 0.98 11.25 9
207 0.49 14.70 3
24,736 58.75 10.45 562
0 0.00 2.81 0
555 1.32 8.01 16
0 0.00 15.25 0
0 0.00 7.13 0
14,439 34.30 10.17 337