Hornchurch (UK Parliament constituency)

Hornchurch
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Hornchurch in Greater London for the 2005 general election.
County	Greater London
1945–2010
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Hornchurch and Upminster, Dagenham and Rainham
Created from	Romford

Hornchurch was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. At the 2010 general election parts formed the new seats of Hornchurch and Upminster; and Dagenham and Rainham.

Boundaries

1945-1974: The Urban District of Hornchurch.

1974-1983: The London Borough of Havering wards of Elm Park, Hacton, Hylands, Rainham, St Andrew's, and South Hornchurch.

1983-2010: The London Borough of Havering wards of Airfield, Elm Park, Hacton, Hylands, Rainham, St Andrew's, and South Hornchurch.

Hornchurch in Essex, showing boundaries used from 1945 to 1950.

The seat encompassed Hornchurch, Rainham, Elm Park and the village of Wennington. It bordered on the other London constituencies of Romford and Upminster and like them, was part of the London Borough of Havering.

History

The south of the constituency has been seen as a site for building large entertainment centres on Rainham's large marshland area, and was viewed as a potential site for the European Disneyland project, although it was considered much less suitable than the current position near Paris. There have been plans to build a casino but permission is yet to be granted.

Hornchurch is a predominantly suburban and Conservative-voting area, but the seat is seen as a swing seat due to Rainham and Elm Park's working class voters and because the wealthiest Emerson Park area of Hornchurch does not form part of the constituency, instead forming part of Upminster constituency.

The Conservative Robin Squire was elected to Parliament as the member for Hornchurch on 3 May 1979, in one of the most surprising results of that election. Labour-held Hornchurch had not been a marginal seat and Squire had not expected to win it. However, he gained the seat from Alan Lee Williams with a majority of just 769 on a "freak" swing of 8.5% to his party. During the Thatcher years (1979 to 1990) Squire was considered to be a prominent "wet", opposed to the Conservative government's economic and employment policies. After Mrs Thatcher left office in 1990, Squire's political position strengthened and he held junior ministerial posts until the fall of the Major government in 1997. Squire was defending a majority of 9,165 - his personal popularity plus his prominence as a Minister led him to believe that he would hold the seat, but he lost to Labour's John Cryer with a 16% swing and a Labour majority of 5,680. Squire stood against Cryer again in the 2001 general election but was again defeated by a significant majority.

The constituency was abolished for the 2010 election. The areas of the constituency covered by the Elm Park, South Hornchurch, and Rainham and Wennington wards in the London Borough of Havering were merged with Dagenham to form a cross-borough Dagenham and Rainham constituency. Hacton and St Andrews wards in Hornchurch merged with Upminster to form Hornchurch and Upminster. Hylands ward in Hornchurch merged with Romford. Prior to the change in boundaries the new seats were predicted to be marginal Labour and safe Conservative respectively if they followed the voting patterns of the previous Dagenham, Upminster and Romford constituencies.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1945	Geoffrey Bing	Labour
	1955	Godfrey Lagden	Conservative
	1966	Alan Lee Williams	Labour
	1970	John Loveridge	Conservative
	Feb 1974	Alan Lee Williams	Labour
	1979	Robin Squire	Conservative
	1997	John Cryer	Labour
	2005	James Brokenshire	Conservative
	2010	constituency abolished: see Hornchurch and Upminster, Dagenham and Rainham & Romford

Elections

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Geoffrey Bing	26,856	56.0	N/A
	Conservative	J.T. Vaisey	15,100	31.5	N/A
	Liberal	N.C. Jones	5,807	12.1	N/A
	Independent	V. Van der Elst	232	0.5	N/A
Majority			11,756	24.5	N/A
Turnout			47,995	72.3	N/A
	Labour win (new seat)

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1950: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Geoffrey Bing	28,463	46.1	−9.9
	Conservative	James Wentworth−Day	26,696	43.2	+11.7
	Liberal	Nancy Seear	6,653	10.8	−1.3
Majority			1,767	2.9
Turnout			61,812	85.7	+13.4
	Labour hold		Swing	−10.8

General Election 1951: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Geoffrey Bing	30,101	47.4	+1.4
	Conservative	James Wentworth−Day	28,976	45.6	+2.4
	Liberal	Nancy Seear	4,771	7.0	−3.8
Majority			1,125	1.8
Turnout			63,848	86.3	+0.6
	Labour hold		Swing	−0.5

General Election 1955: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Godfrey Lagden	29,205	46.2	+0.6
	Labour	Geoffrey Bing	27,833	44.1	−3.4
	Liberal	Donald S. Paterson	6,117	9.7	+2.7
Majority			1,372	2.2
Turnout			63,155	82.0	−4.3
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+2.0

General Election 1959: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Godfrey Lagden	34,852	47.5	+1.3
	Labour	Jo Richardson	27,530	37.5	−6.6
	Liberal	Lyndon H. Jones	11,056	15.1	+5.4
Majority			7,322	10.0
Turnout			73,438	83.9	+1.9
	Conservative hold		Swing	+4.0

Elections in the 1960s

General Election 1964: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Godfrey Lagden	30,933	41.6	−5.9
	Labour	Trevor Williams	30,699	41.3	+3.8
	Liberal	Ralph Taylor	12,725	17.1	+2.0
Majority			234	0.3
Turnout			74,357	81.9	−2.0
	Conservative hold		Swing	−4.9

General Election 1966: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alan Lee Williams	38,406	52.1	+10.8
	Conservative	Godfrey Lagden	35,373	47.9	+6.3
Majority			3,033	4.1
Turnout			73,779	81.1	−0.8
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	+2.3

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1970: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Loveridge	36,124	49.7	+1.8
	Labour	Alan Lee Williams	30,294	41.7	−10.4
	Liberal	Bryan G. Sell	6,227	8.6	N/A
Majority			5,830	8.0
Turnout			72,645	72.8	−8.3
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+6.1

Note: This constituency underwent boundary changes after the 1970 election, so was notionally a Labour seat.

General Election February 1974: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alan Lee Williams	21,763	45.0	−3.8
	Conservative	J. Jackson	15,567	32.2	−7.4
	Liberal	B. McCarthy	10,391	21.5	+12.9
	People Movement	B. Percy−Davis	619	1.3	N/A
Majority			6,196	12.8
Turnout			48,340	80.8	+8.0
	Labour hold		Swing	+1.8

General Election October 1974: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alan Lee Williams	21,336	48.5	+3.5
	Conservative	Robin Squire	14,535	33.1	+0.9
	Liberal	B.G. McCarthy	7,284	16.6	−4.9
	People Movement	B. Percy−Davis	797	1.8	+0.5
Majority			6,801	15.5
Turnout			43,952	72.7	−8.1
	Labour hold		Swing	+1.3

General Election 1979: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robin Squire	21,340	44.9	+11.8
	Labour	Alan Lee Williams	20,571	43.3	−5.2
	Liberal	C. Lewcock	4,657	9.8	−6.8
	National Front	A. Harris	994	2.1	N/A
Majority			769	1.6
Turnout			47,562	78.1	+4.4
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+8.5

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1983: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robin Squire	21,393	47.0	+2.1
	Labour	Alan Ronald Williams	12,209	26.9	−16.4
	Social Democratic	J. Martin	11,251	24.7	+14.9
	National Front	Mrs. A.M. Joyce	402	−1.2	N/A
	Ecology	M. Crowson	219	0.5	N/A
Majority			9,184	20.2
Turnout			45,474	73.7	−4.4
	Conservative hold		Swing	+9.3

General Election 1987: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robin Squire	24,039	51.2	+4.2
	Labour	Alan Ronald Williams	13,345	28.4	+1.5
	Social Democratic	Mark Leonard Christopher Long	9,609	20.4	−4.3
Majority			10,694	22.8
Turnout			44,712	75.3	+1.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	+1.4

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1992: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robin Squire	25,817	53.5	+2.3
	Labour	Miss Leonie A.R.G. Cooper	16,652	34.5	+6.1
	Liberal Democrat	Barry J. Oddy	5,366	11.1	–9.3
	Independent Ind SD	Terrence F. Matthews	453	0.9	N/A
Majority			9,165	19.0	–3.8
Turnout			48,288	79.8	+4.5
	Conservative hold		Swing	–1.9

General Election 1997: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Cryer	22,066	50.2	+15.8
	Conservative	Robin Squire	16,386	37.3	–16.2
	Liberal Democrat	Rabi Martins	3,446	7.8	–3.2
	Referendum	Rory E.B. Khilkoff-Bouldi	1,595	3.6	N/A
	Independent	Miss Jenny Trueman	259	0.6	N/A
	ProLife Alliance	Joseph Sowerby	189	0.4	N/A
Majority			5,680	12.9
Turnout			43,941	72.8	–7.0
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	16.0

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2001: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Cryer	16,514	46.4	–3.8
	Conservative	Robin Squire	15,032	42.3	+5.0
	Liberal Democrat	Miss Sarah E. Lea	2,928	8.2	+0.4
	UKIP	Lawrence James Webb	893	2.5	N/A
	Third Way	David Durant	190	0.5	N/A
Majority			1,482	4.1
Turnout			35,557	58.3	–14.5
	Labour hold		Swing	–4.4

General Election 2005: Hornchurch

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Brokenshire	16,355	42.8	+0.5
	Labour	John Cryer	15,875	41.6	–4.8
	Liberal Democrat	Nathaniel Jacob Green	2,894	7.6	–0.6
	BNP	Ian Moore	1,313	3.4	N/A
	UKIP	Laurence James Webb	1,033	2.7	+0.2
	Residents	Malvin P. Brown	395	1.0	N/A
	Third Way	Graham K. Williamson	304	0.8	+0.3
Majority			480	1.3
Turnout			38,169	63.5	+5.6
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+2.6

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London