Croydon West (UK Parliament constituency)

Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1950–1955 and 2024 onwards

Croydon West
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Croydon West in Greater London
County	Greater London
Electorate	70,812 (2023)^[1]
Major settlements	Croydon, South Norwood, Thornton Heath, Waddon
Current constituency
Created	2024
Member of Parliament	TBC (TBC)
Seats	One
Created from	Croydon Central, Croydon North and Croydon South
1950–1955
Created from	Croydon North, Croydon South and East Surrey
Replaced by	Croydon North West and Croydon South

Croydon West is a borough constituency which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1950 to 1955 by the first past the post system of election.

Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat was re-established for the 2024 general election. It primarily comprises the majority of the abolished constituency of Croydon North, with the addition of Croydon town centre and the community of Waddon.^[2]

Politics and history

Croydon West was a short-lived seat for the 1950 general election, creating three seats in the County Borough of Croydon from the previous two, also taking in areas from the East Surrey constituency to the south.

Croydon West took in areas of the former Croydon North and Croydon South constituencies, and East Surrey. It bordered Croydon East, Croydon North, East Surrey and Mitcham.

All three Croydon constituencies were abolished five years later at the 1955 general election, re-creating Croydon South and creating Croydon North East and Croydon North West seats.

For all of its history, Croydon West's Member of Parliament was Conservative Richard Thompson. It was contested in two elections: the 1950 general election and the 1951 general election. Prior to 1950, Croydon South had been held by Labour and most of the Labour voters were re-drawn into Croydon West, making it a marginal seat.

Boundaries

Map of boundaries from 2024

Dates	Local authority	Maps	Wards
1950–1955	County Borough of Croydon		Broad Green, Central, South, Waddon, and Whitehorse Manor.
2024-present	London Borough of Croydon		Bensham Manor, Broad Green, Fairfield, Selhurst, South Norwood, Waddon, West Thornton, Woodside (polling district WDS1)^[3]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1950	Richard Thompson	Conservative
1955		constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 2020s

General election 2024: Croydon West^[4]
Party		Candidate
	TUSC	April Ashley
	Conservative	Simon Fox
	Liberal Democrats	Jahir Hussain
	Labour	Sarah Jones
	Reform UK	Vinayak Malhotra
	Taking the Initiative	Donna Murray-Turner
	Green	Ria Patel
	Workers Party	Ahsan Ullah
Majority
Turnout
	win (new seat)

Elections in the 1950s

General election 1951: Croydon West
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Richard Thompson	23,484	52.2	+4.9
	Labour	Gerald Gardiner	21,534	47.8	+2.7
Majority			1,950	4.3	+2.1
Turnout			45,018
	Conservative hold		Swing	+1.1

General election 1950: Croydon West
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Richard Thompson	21,411	47.3
	Labour	David Rees-Williams	20,424	45.1
	Liberal	Arthur Russell Mayne	3,101	6.8
	Communist	Bob Jarvie^[5]	336	0.7
Majority			987	2.2
Turnout			45,272
	Conservative win (new seat)

Sources

The Times House of Commons 1950. Times Media. 1950.
Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 6) [Archived]

References

^ "The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume two: Constituency names, designations and composition – London". Boundary Commission for England. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
^ "The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume one: Report – London | Boundary Commission for England". boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
^ "The Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023". Schedule 1 Part 3 London region.
^ "Candidate information". Croydon Council. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
^ Stevenson, Graham. "Jarvie Bob". Archived from the original on 18 April 2017. Retrieved 18 April 2017.