Brent Central (UK Parliament constituency)

Brent Central
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Brent Central in Greater London.
County	Greater London
Population	137,438 (2011 census)
Electorate	73,385 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	2010
Member of parliament	Dawn Butler (Labour)
Number of members	One
Created from	Brent East, Brent South, Brent North
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	London

Brent Central is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament, currently represented by Dawn Butler of the Labour Party.

History

From parts of three predecessor seats (Brent East, Brent South, Brent North, the first two of which no longer exist) the seat was compiled in the London review of seats of the Boundary Commission before the 2010 general election.

Sarah Teather was the constituency's first MP, from 2010 to 2015, when she stood down; she had previously represented the old Brent East constituency since a 2003 by-election. Dawn Butler, previously Labour MP for Brent South, who lost to Teather in 2010, gained the seat in 2015 with a majority of over 40% over the Conservative candidate, whilst the Liberal Democrat share of the vote fell by 35.8%, the sharpest fall in the party's vote share in that election.

Constituency profile

The Brent Central constituency forms the central portion of the London Borough of Brent. Since the early 1990s the Conservative party have been without wards in the constituency. In other words, a plurality of the voters in each ward have been in favour of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats. It is mostly in the postal district of NW10, but also partly falls under NW2, NW9 and HA9.

Districts and ethnicity

Kensal Green lies at the southeast of the seat, neighbouring Stonebridge and Harlesden, which have a high concentration of black residents and severe deprivation. The southwest corner is dominated by the Park Royal industrial estate, the largest in Europe. To the west is the new Wembley Stadium, while the north reaches to the small sublocality of Welsh Harp and rest of Dollis Hill. Other than Harlesden and Stonebridge areas with prominence in the Index of Multiple Deprivation are in smallest areas (Output Areas of censuses) within Willesden Green and Neasden, which has Britain's largest Hindu temple. Although there is a mixed income established Asian minority, the proportion of the borough's residents who describe themselves as of Asian ethnicity is only the fourth highest in London, the highest proportion of Asian backgrounds is in the London Borough of Newham. The proportion of social housing and rented housing is close to the average of Greater London; this increased by 66% in the ten years to 2011 to 30%.

Boundaries

Brent Central is made up of nine electoral wards from the London Borough of Brent:

• Dollis Hill, Dudden Hill, Harlesden, Kensal Green, Mapesbury, Stonebridge, Tokyngton, Welsh Harp, Willesden Green

Boundary review

Following its review of parliamentary representation in North London, the Boundary Commission for England reduced Brent and Camden's constituencies from five to four. To create the new Brent Central constituency, Dollis Hill ward, Dudden Hill ward, Mapesbury ward, and parts of Welsh Harp ward, Willesden Green ward, Kensal Green ward, and Stonebridge ward were taken from the former Brent East constituency; Harlesden ward, and parts of Stonebridge ward, Willesden Green ward, Kensal Green ward, Tokyngton ward, and Welsh Harp ward were taken from the former Brent South constituency; and part of Welsh Harp ward was taken from the reconstituted Brent North constituency.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	2010	Sarah Teather	Liberal Democrat
	2015	Dawn Butler	Labour

Elections

See also: Opinion polling in United Kingdom constituencies, 2010–15 § Brent Central

General Election 2015: Brent Central

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Dawn Butler	29,216	62.1	+20.9
	Conservative	Alan Mendoza	9,567	20.3	+9.2
	Liberal Democrat	Lauren Keith	3,937	8.4	-35.8
	Green	Shahrar Ali	1,912	4.1	+2.6
	UKIP	Stephen Priestley	1,850	3.9	N/A
	TUSC	John Boyle	235	0.5	N/A
	Communities United	Kamran Malik	170	0.4	N/A
	Independent	Noel Coonan	145	0.3	N/A
Majority			19,649	41.8
Turnout			47,032	61.1	-0.1
	Labour gain from Liberal Democrat		Swing	+28.3

General Election 2010: Brent Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal Democrat	Sarah Teather*	20,026	44.2
	Labour	Dawn Butler**	18,681	41.2
	Conservative	Sachin Rajput	5,068	11.2
	Green	Shahrar Ali	668	1.5
	Christian	Errol Williams	488	1.1
	Respect	Abdi Duale	230	0.5
	Independent	Dean McCastree	163	0.4
Majority			1,345	3.0
Turnout			45,324	61.2
	Liberal Democrat win (new seat)

* Served as MP for Brent East in the 2005–2010 Parliament

** Served as MP for Brent South in the 2005–2010 Parliament

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London
• Opinion polling for the next United Kingdom general election in individual constituencies

External links

• nomis Constituency Profile for Brent Central — presenting data from the ONS annual population survey and other official statistics.