West Central (London Assembly constituency)

West Central
Territorial constituency for the London Assembly
West Central shown within London
Created2000 (2000)
Number of membersOne
MemberJames Small-Edwards
PartyLabour
Last election2024
Next election2028

West Central is a constituency represented on the London Assembly. The seat is currently held by James Small-Edwards from the Labour Party.

It covers the combined area of the City of Westminster, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, much larger than the West Central postcode area.

History

Since the seat's creation in 2000, the elected Assembly Member (AM) until 2024 had always been a Conservative candidate: three have represented the seat in succession. Its first AM was Angie Bray, who subsequently served as MP for Ealing Central and Acton. She was followed by Kit Malthouse in 2008, who was elected as MP for North West Hampshire in 2015, thus acting as an AM and MP for the remainder of his term on the London Assembly. He was succeeded in 2016 by Tony Devenish, who has been a councillor for Knightsbridge and Belgravia in Westminster (part of the GLA seat) since 2006.

At the time of the 2016 London Assembly elections, two of the MPs for the five parliamentary constituencies covered by this seat were members of the Labour Party, and the other three from the Conservatives; Labour have always been the main challenger in the corresponding GLA seat. It includes a number of affluent areas which have tended to vote for Conservative candidates in local and general elections, accounting for the results to date.

After the 2016 election, defeated candidate Mandy Richards lodged an election petition claiming that the results showed a discrepancy in turnout and that 15,000–20,000 postal votes were missing.[1] The case was heard on 8 and 9 December 2016; the result was that all aspects of the petition were dismissed.[2]

Assembly members

Election Member Party
2000 Angie Bray Conservative
2008 Kit Malthouse Conservative
2016 Tony Devenish Conservative
2024 James Small-Edwards Labour

Mayoral election results

Below are the results for the candidate which received the highest share of the popular vote in the constituency at each mayoral election.

Year Member Party
2000 Steven Norris Conservative
2004 Steven Norris Conservative
2008 Boris Johnson Conservative
2012 Boris Johnson Conservative
2016 Zac Goldsmith Conservative
2021 Shaun Bailey Conservative
2024 Sadiq Khan Labour

Overlapping constituencies

The West Central Assembly constituency comprises all of the following UK Parliament constituencies:

Assembly election results

2020s

2024 London Assembly election: West Central[3][4]
Party Candidate Constituency List
Votes % ±% Votes % ±%
Labour James Small-Edwards 46,831 37.7 +0.4 45,102 36.2 +3.5
Conservative Tony Devenish 42,578 34.2 -4.6 39,049 31.3 -5.0
Liberal Democrats Christophe Noblet 14,505 11.7 +2.2 11,223 9.0 +1.4
Green Rajiv Rahul Sinha 12,427 10.0 -1.6 11,717 9.4 -2.1
Reform UK Nicola Pateman 8,040 6.5 +5.1 5,856 4.7 +3.8
Rejoin EU 4,533 3.6 +1.1
Animal Welfare 1,967 1.6 -0.1
Britain First 1,147 0.9 New
CPA 1,014 0.8 0.0
SDP 986 0.8 +0.5
Independent Laurence Fox 838 0.7 New
Communist 528 0.4 +0.1
Independent Farah London 312 0.3 New
Heritage 221 0.2 -0.4
Independent Gabe Romualdo 61 0.1 New
Majority 4,253 3.5 N/A
Valid Votes 124,381 124,554
Invalid Votes 1,143 983
Turnout 125,524 34.94 125,537 34.95
Labour gain from Conservative Swing


2021 London Assembly election: West Central[5]
Party Candidate Constituency List
Votes % ±% Votes % ±%
Conservative Tony Devenish 55,163 38.9 -5.3 51,435 36.3
Labour Rita Begum 52,938 37.3 +2.6 46,364 32.7
Green Zack Polanski 16,427 11.6 +2.4 16,320 11.5
Liberal Democrats Ted Townsend 13,462 9.5 +3.6 10,742 7.6
Rejoin EU 3,591 2.5
Women's Equality 2,630 1.9
Animal Welfare 2,438 1.7
Reform UK Saradhi Rajan 1,954 1.4 New 1,332 0.9
CPA 1,157 0.8
Let London Live Heiko Khoo 1,977 1.4 New 1,121 0.8
London Real 1,082 0.7
UKIP 998 0.7
Heritage 903 0.6
Communist 460 0.3
SDP 423 0.3
TUSC 312 0.2
Londependence Party 268 0.2
National Liberal 112 0.1
Majority 2,225 1.6 −7.9
Turnout 137,990
Conservative hold Swing
Notes

2010s

2016 London Assembly election: West Central[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Tony Devenish 67,775 44.2 −6.2
Labour Mandy Richards 53,211 34.7 +4.2
Green Jennifer Nadel 14,050 9.2 +0.5
Liberal Democrats Annabel Mullin 10,577 5.9 −1.0
UKIP Clive Egan 7,708 5.0 +1.5
Majority 14,564 9.5 −10.4
Turnout 153,321 45.0 +5.8
Conservative hold Swing -5.2
2012 London Assembly election: West Central[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Kit Malthouse 73,761 50.4 −1.7
Labour Todd Foreman 44,630 30.5 +9.3
Green Susanna Rustin 12,799 8.7 −1.4
Liberal Democrats Layla Moran 10,035 6.9 −2.7
UKIP Elizabeth Jones 5,161 3.5 +1.7
Majority 29,131 19.9 –11.0
Turnout 149,419 39.2 −9.3
Conservative hold Swing -5.5
2008 London Assembly election: West Central[8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Kit Malthouse 86,651 52.1 +7.4
Labour Murad Qureshi 35,270 21.2 +2.3
Green Julia Stephenson 16,874 10.1 +0.8
Liberal Democrats Merlene Emerson 15,934 9.6 –5.5
UKIP Paul Wiffen 3,060 1.8 –4.4
English Democrat Alex Vaughan 1,858 1.1 New
Left List Explo Nani-Kofi 1,630 1.0 New
Independent Abby Dharamsey 962 0.6 New
Majority 51,381 30.9 +5.1
Turnout 166,379 48.5 +15.6
Conservative hold Swing +2.5
2004 London Assembly election: West Central[9]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Angie Bray 51,884 44.7 +0.5
Labour Ansuya Sodha 21,940 18.9 –8.1
Liberal Democrats Francesco Fruzza 17,478 15.1 +1.9
Green Julia Stephenson 10,762 9.3 –2.2
UKIP Damian Hockney 7,219 6.2 New
Respect Kevin Cobham 4,825 4.1 New
CPA Jillian McLachlan 1,993 1.7 New
Majority 29,944 25.8 +8.6
Turnout 116,101 32.9 +2.0
Conservative hold Swing +4.3
2000 London Assembly election: West Central[10]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Angie Bray 47,117 44.2
Labour Kate Green 28,838 27.0
Liberal Democrats Jon Burden 14,071 13.2
Green Julia Stephenson 12,254 11.5
London Socialist Christine Blower 2,720 2.6
Homeless and Addicted Stephen Smith 1,600 1.5
Majority 18,279 17.2
Turnout 106,600 30.9
Conservative win (new seat)

References

  1. ^ "Petition notice" (PDF). 20 June 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
  2. ^ "Richards v Devenish & Anor [2017] EWHC 37 (QB) England and Wales High Court (Queen's Bench Division) Judgment Law CaseMine". Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  3. ^ "GLA 2024 Elections, Constituency Member of the London Assembly Results, West Central" (PDF). London Elects.
  4. ^ "GLA 2024 Elections, London Wide Assembly, West Central" (PDF). London Elects.
  5. ^ Results 2021 LondonElects
  6. ^ Unknown Title[permanent dead link‍]
  7. ^ "GLA 2012 Elections - Constituency member of the London assembly results". Archived from the original on 8 May 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  8. ^ "BBC NEWS | Election 2008 | London Elections: West Central". news.bbc.co.uk.
  9. ^ "BBC NEWS | In Depth | Vote 2004 | London Elections: West Central". news.bbc.co.uk.
  10. ^ London & Local Elections 2000: West Central, BBC News