Croydon West (UK Parliament constituency)

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.

Croydon West
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Interactive map of boundaries from 2024
County	Greater London
Electorate	70,812 (2023)[1]
Major settlements	Croydon, South Norwood, Thornton Heath, Waddon
Current constituency
Created	2024
Member of Parliament	Sarah Jones (Labour)
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

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]

Constituency profile

Croydon West covers Croydon itself, which is a major employment and retail centre, and the surrounding suburbs of Thornton Heath (part), Selhurst, South Norwood and Waddon. It is an ethnically diverse seat with incomes and house prices around average for the UK.^[3]

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 the entirety of its first iteration in the 1950s, 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

Dates	Local authority	Maps	Wards
1950–1955	County Borough of Croydon	Shown within Surrey	Broad Green, Central, South, Waddon, and Whitehorse Manor.
2024-present	London Borough of Croydon	Shown within Greater London	Bensham Manor, Broad Green, Fairfield, Selhurst, South Norwood, Waddon, West Thornton, Woodside (part)[4]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party	Notes
	1950	Richard Thompson	Conservative	Contested Croydon South following redistribution
1955		constituency abolished
	2024	Sarah Jones	Labour	Member for main predecessor seat (2017–2024)

Election results

Election results 2019-2024

Elections in the 2020s

General election 2024: Croydon West^[5][6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Sarah Jones	20,612	54.1	–12.6
	Conservative	Simon Fox	6,386	16.8	–4.7
	Green	Ria Patel	3,851	10.1	+7.4
	Liberal Democrats	Jahir Hussain	3,667	9.6	+2.6
	Reform UK	Vinayak Malhotra	2,148	5.6	+4.3
	Workers Party	Ahsan Ullah	708	1.9	+1.9
	Taking the Initiative	Donna Murray-Turner	503	1.3	+1.3
	TUSC	April Ashley	247	0.6	+0.6
Majority			14,226	37.3	–7.9
Turnout			38,122	48.9	–13.9
Registered electors			77,942
	Labour hold		Swing	–4.0

Elections in the 2010s

2019 notional result[7]
Party		Vote	%
	Labour	29,651	66.7
	Conservative	9,561	21.5
	Liberal Democrats	3,097	7.0
	Green	1,205	2.7
	Brexit Party	587	1.3
	Others	348	0.8
Turnout		44,449	62.8
Electorate		70,812

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[8]	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]