The return of an MP for Brixton

[lang rabbie]

The leaked version of the Boundary Commission review on Guido Fawkes blog says they are recommending the creation of a Brixton Parliamentary Constituency:
Brixton BC 77,575

It would include the following wards:
Brixton Hill ... Lambeth 9,842
Coldharbour... Lambeth 10,216
Ferndale ...Lambeth 9,879
Herne Hill ... Lambeth 9,613
Larkhall ... Lambeth 10,516
Thurlow Park ...Lambeth 8,871
Tulse Hill ... Lambeth 9,701
Vassall Lambeth 8,937

[ETA Brixton Hill added back - somehow fell off in cut and paste as noticed by malice below!]

 

[Laughing Toad]

Thanks for this.

It looks then like it's set to be a safe Labour seat.

 

[malice]

And it includes Brixton Hill as well (9,842). So the Streatham Constituency starts further south, and becomes Streatham and Tooting.
Other ones in the area are:

Dulwich and Sydenham (a shifted Dulwich and West Norwood), takes Peckham Rye
Battersea and Vauxhall - takes the Stockwell bits of the area. This one is intriguing as it crosses a safe Labour seat (Kate Hoey's) with one that went Tory last time
Camberwell and Peckham - but not including Peckham Rye

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Anyone else old enough to remember Marcus Lipton?

 

[malice]

And there's a new Clapham Common constituency - contains Streatham Hill, Balham, Thornton, Earlsfield, Nightingdale, Northcote and Wandsworth Common

 

[Belushi]

Hmmm, so will the British Barack Obama stick with Streatham or opt for Brixton?

 

[malice]

Hmmm, so will the British Barack Obama stick with Streatham or opt for Brixton?

I think Streatham - [his campaign literature always mentions that he lives "on Streatham High Rd"].

The intriguing thing is Chuka Umunna and Sadiq Khan may well be after the same constituency - Streatham and Tooting, though with the Clapham Common one, maybe Khan will go for that? But Brixton would be an obvious, and very safe Labour seat for Umunna.

 

[Tricky Skills]

And what of the Nu Labour poster boy, *not* the Wronged Steve? He must fancy his chances even more if he can fulfill his ambition of outsting Hoey. His right wing politics would play well on the doorsteps of parts of affluent Battersea.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

And what of the Nu Labour poster boy, *not* the Wronged Steve? He must fancy his chances even more if he can fulfill his ambition of outsting Hoey. His right wing politics would play well on the doorsteps of parts of affluent Battersea.

Oh God You saw that thread too

 

[Gramsci]

The leaked version of the Boundary Commission review on Guido Fawkes blog says they are recommending the creation of a Brixton Parliamentary Constituency:
Brixton BC 77,575

It would include the following wards:

Coldharbour... Lambeth 10,216
Ferndale ...Lambeth 9,879
Herne Hill ... Lambeth 9,613
Larkhall ... Lambeth 10,516
Thurlow Park ...Lambeth 8,871
Tulse Hill ... Lambeth 9,701

Vassall Lambeth 8,937

Wouldnt have thought that Herne Hill wouldnt be that happy lumped in with Brixton. What is Thurlow Park like? Is it more upmarket than Herne Hill?

The rest of it makes sense. Brixton and surrounds always had that problem of being on edge of MPs constituency.

 

[Brixtonboy4ever]

I do remember Mr Marcus Lipton MP. As a school boy myself and a few others interviewed him for the South London Press.
My father said he was a really good Constituent MP and I do believe he remained MP until he died and I think was always a backbencher . A youth club in near by Loughborough Junction was named after him.
After WW2 using Parliamentary privilege he named Kim Philby as the ‘third man’ of the Cambridge Spy Ring but was forced to withdraw his comment by Philby and the rest is history!!
Marcus had his controversial views on pop groups and the Sex Pistols but he was a hard act to follow and the Labour MPs that followed on after never really managed to replace him. On reflection comparing with MPs nowadays not only did he have a proper job before he entered parliament, in Brixton in the 1930s he ran a free advice centre (un heard of) and during WW2 he went from Corporal to Lt Colonel a unbelievable feat in within its self.

 

[wtfftw]

Anyone else old enough to remember Marcus Lipton?

I was trying to work out why I recognised his name. the youth club.

 

[ericjarvis]

Thanks for this.

It looks then like it's set to be a safe Labour seat.

Of course. The whole idea is to create a safe Labour seat in Brixton and turn the formerly marginal Labour seats around it into Tory marginals. It's likely to mean an increase of 3 Tory MPs in the area in exchange for making one Labour MP totally safe.

 

[lang rabbie]

Of course. The whole idea is to create a safe Labour seat in Brixton and turn the formerly marginal Labour seats around it into Tory marginals. It's likely to mean an increase of 3 Tory MPs in the area in exchange for making one Labour MP totally safe.

Bit too much conspiracy theory there, Eric.
Every commentator I've seen so far is calling the Streatham & Tooting seat as safe for Labour as well.

 

[malice]

I've been trying to work out if there's a party advantage, but find it tricky as you need to know about all 27 seats that become 25 in South London to work that out. The changes are so many and knock-on to all constituencies, that it's only the totals that matter, not individual seats.

To add, I think Streatham and Tooting would still be Labour, probably Dulwich and Sydenham (it loses Coldharbour but gains Peckham Rye), though Clapham Common and the Vauxhall and Battersea one could go either way - but Battersea only went Tory last time, so with Stockwell would probably be Labour wouldn't it?

 

[TruXta]

Oh God You saw that thread too

We all did, Mrs. Magpie. Brixton forum thread of the year contender.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Maybe Editor should form the U75 Party...

 

[se5]

The full South London proposals have been published - http://consultation.boundarycommiss...nt.gov.uk/whats-proposed/london/south-london/

and its as the leak says.

It will be very interesting for our Lambeth MPs but according to some reports the proposals might not be implemented in time for the next election (2014/15) as there will be lots of debate and MPs unwilling to give up seats

The thought occurs to me that several of our South London MPs may well take this opportunity to retire :
Hoey (Vauxhall MP) is 65
Jowell (Dulwich West Norwood) is 63
Hughes (Bermondsey) is 60
Harman (Camberwell Peckham) is 61

as all would be eligible for pensions etc and could leave the new constituencies for younger people - expect huge scramble for the new seats with most of the current Lambeth cabinet + assorted others putting themselves forward

 

[eroom]

Wouldnt have thought that Herne Hill wouldnt be that happy lumped in with Brixton. What is Thurlow Park like? Is it more upmarket than Herne Hill?

The rest of it makes sense. Brixton and surrounds always had that problem of being on edge of MPs constituency.

Well I'm in the Herne Hill ward and I'd be delighted to be back within the Brixton constituency. And obviously I speak for the other 9612 of us too.

My dad, late of this parish, speaks highly of Marcus Lipton.

 

[ericjarvis]

Bit too much conspiracy theory there, Eric.
Every commentator I've seen so far is calling the Streatham & Tooting seat as safe for Labour as well.

The Boundary Commission is all about conspiracy theory.

Back when I was Vauxhall agent I was involved in checking through the plans Lambeth were putting to it back in the late 80s. It's from those changes that safe Labour bits of Vauxhall were hived off to make Battersea and Dulwich better bets for Labour. Of course the political parties try to make it work for them, why wouldn't they?

The reason I don't see Streatham & Tooting as a safe Labour seat is that the Labour vote in Streatham has been rather high over recent elections in historical terms. I'm pretty sure it will be a marginal. Also Stockwell hasn't always been solid Labour, it's actually quite a volatile mix, like Oval. Not as volatile as Bishops and Princes, but not safe Labour in the same way as Ferndale, Larkhall, Vassall, and Coldharbour.

Not that I see the ConDems holding or taking many marginals next time around. In the longer term I'm not so sure.

However a Brixton constituency does make sense, and in itself is a good thing.

 

[ericjarvis]

Maybe Editor should form the U75 Party...

Personally I think we should use Urban 75 to set up a slate of independent candidates to fight the next council elections in Lambeth. We might not get many candidates even close to elected, but I'm pretty certain we could put the fear of God into a fair number of the current time servers and party hacks.

 

[CH1]

I do remember Mr Marcus Lipton MP During WW2 he went from Corporal to Lt Colonel a unbelievable feat in within its self.

Colonel Marcus Lipton MP was always styled as Colonel, maybe just making a point, or maybe people had a lot of respect for military titles in the aftermath of the war.
I don't remember him - but I do remember the disastrous by-election when he died in early 1979. The National Front came third, beating the Liberal (David Blunt, barrister, lived in Chaucer Road and wrote episodes of "Crown Court" for ITV) into 4th place.
I would welcome a Brixton constituency - Labour or otherwise. This splitting a natural community into bits has gone on since 1987 when our Lambeth Central constituency was abolished, and its MP John Tilley (Lab) - resident of Effra Court, then Pulross Road - was forced to challenge Simon Hughes in Bermondsey (and lost).

 

[lang rabbie]

The first public hearings on the plans are tomorrow and Tuesday in the glamorous surroundings of the Holiday Inn, Cromwell Road. (There is a later south-West London hearing at the end of the month)

Each of the mainstream political parties are expected to be making an initial introduction - hinting what their counter-proposals would look like for the London region.

Lots of rumours of blood on the carpet at London Labour Party HQ - some sitting MPs are trying to get proposals for new seats tweaked with enough of the electorate coming from their old seat so they are automatically shortlisted under Labour Party rules?

Is the magic number for this still 40% ??? The breakdown of the currently suggested Brixton seat appears to be 25% Streatham (Umunna) 37% Dulwich & West Norwood (Jowell) 38% Vauxhall (Hoey)

 

[lang rabbie]

It looks as though proposals for the new Brixton seat are likely to get a relatively easy ride. [/famous last words]

Intriguingly someone called "John Major" is down to speak at the hearing in Wandsworth next week - can it be "the" John Major, Brixton boy, and if so is he going to talk about Brixton?

The other interesting news is that so far both the Conservative Party and the Labour Party are officially backing the Commission's proposals for seats in Lambeth and Wandsworth, even though the three Lambeth MPs have previously expressed their opposition. Tessa Jowell went to the hearing in Lewisham earlier this week. I'm told that she ranted about the unfairness of the process but did not sugggest an alternative to the rippping up of her seat.

The Lib Dems are backing the new Brixton seat, but proposing some changes further south and west e.g. to reunite Streatham town centre in one seat rather than split between three, and to keep the centres of Balham, Battersea, Clapham and Crystal Palace in single constituencies.

My perception is that both the Tory and Labour party machines much prefer the creation of "safe" seats rather than marginals, even though the boundaries cut across a lot of natural community boundaries in places outside Brixton.

I suspect (cynical, moi?!) that some people within Labour are hoping for a simple process by which Kate Hoey gets "Battersea and Vauxhall", Chuka Umunna gets "Brixton", Sadiq Khan gets "Streatham and Tooting" and Tessa Jowell gets a peerage. (With the Olympic Village becoming E20 maybe "Baroness Jowell of Walford"? ).

However, if the Lib Dem alternative was adopted, then given Chuka's previously declared loyalty to Streatham, presumably the Labour Party would have to have an open selection for Brixton. It will therefore be interesting to see how actively Labour oppose the Lib Dem counter-proposals to keep a Streatham seat.

Perhaps because of the official Labour party line(?), there is now a "Save our Streatham" campaign website and e-petition - I had never heard of the people organising it before this week.

Haven't heard yet what the Lambeth Green Party's views are.

 

[Brixton Hatter]

cheers for the update LR

 

[colacubes]

It looks as though proposals for the new Brixton seat are likely to get a relatively easy ride. [/famous last words]

Intriguingly someone called "John Major" is down to speak at the hearing in Wandsworth next week - can it be "the" John Major, Brixton boy, and if so is he going to talk about Brixton?

The other interesting news is that so far both the Conservative Party and the Labour Party are officially backing the Commission's proposals for seats in Lambeth and Wandsworth, even though the three Lambeth MPs have previously expressed their opposition. Tessa Jowell went to the hearing in Lewisham earlier this week. I'm told that she ranted about the unfairness of the process but did not sugggest an alternative to the rippping up of her seat.

The Lib Dems are backing the new Brixton seat, but proposing some changes further south and west e.g. to reunite Streatham town centre in one seat rather split between three, and to keep the centres of Balham, Battersea, Clapham and Crystal Palace in single constituencies.

My perception is that both the Tory and Labour party machines much prefer the creation of "safe" seats rather than marginals, even though the boundaries cut across a lot natural community boundaries in places outside Brixton.

I suspect (cynical, moi?!) that some people within in Labour are hoping for a simple process by which Kate Hoey gets "Battersea and Vauxhall", Chuka Umunna gets "Brixton", Sadiq Khan gets "Streatham and Tooting" and Tessa Jowell gets a peerage. (With the Olympic Village becoming E20 maybe "Baroness Jowell of Walford"? ).

However, if the Lib Dem alternative was adopted, then given Chuka's previously declared loyalty to Streatham, presumably the Labour Party would have to have an open selection for Brixton. It will therefore be interesting to see how actively Labour oppose the Lib Dem counter-proposals to keep a Streatham seat.

Perhaps because of the official Labour party line(?), there is now a "Save our Streatham" campaign website and e-petition - I had never heard of the people organising it before this week.

Haven't heard yet what the Lambeth Green Party's views are.

I think your suspicions are well placed. I do wonder whether Kate Hoey might take the opportunity to retire though.

 

[lang rabbie]

Keith Hill, the former Labour MP for Streatham, appeared at the inquiry in Wandsworth this afternoon.

In order to try and reassemble a bit more of Streatham in one seat, he suggested swapping four wards between the proposed new constituencies.

• Streatham Hill - would be in "Streatham and Tooting" rather than "Clapham Common"
• Gipsy Hill - would be in "Brixton" rather than in "Streatham and Tooting"
• Larkhall - would be in "Battersea and Vauxhall" rather than "Brixton"
• Clapham Town - would be in "Clapham Common" rather than in "Battersea and Vauxhall"

Which sounds pretty sensible, with the possible exception of Gypsy Hill - which surely regards itself as Norwood or Crystal Palace even though it is linked to Brixton by a couple of very slow buses???

Intriguingly, none of Keith's suggested changes reduce Chuka's claim to go for the Brixton seat rather than Streatham & Tooting.

Disappointingly, the "John Major" billed to appear tomorrow is appparently not the former PM.

 

[charcol]

Which sounds pretty sensible, with the possible exception of Gypsy Hill - which surely regards itself as Norwood or Crystal Palace even though it is linked to Brixton by a couple of very slow buses???

They do seem fairly reasonable, and would presumably make Clapham Common a little better for the Conservatives and Battersea & Vauxhall more likely to go Labour?

Unless there's a wholesale change to the proposals, the way in which these seats have been carved up means that Gipsy Hill is always going to be anomolous. You could always change its name to Brixton and West Norwood.

 

[g force]

So one side of Streatham Common (following the North Rd) is potentially Streatham and Tooting, yet our side will be classified as Mitcham. Makes sense

 

[lang rabbie]

The Boundary Commission have released all the responses to the first round of consultation. All three main parties are backing the new Brixton seat. But the real row is about points south (Lib Dems proposing a rethink to re-unite Streatham) and east (Labour proposing a complete rejigging to keep various seats together in Lewisham and Greenwich).