| Chingford and Woodford Green | |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 1997 |
| Type: | Borough |
| Elects Howmany: | One |
| Population: | 88,149 (2011 census)[1] |
| Electorate: | 75,677 (2023)[2] |
| Party: | Conservative Party (UK) |
| Region: | England |
| European: | London |
Chingford and Woodford Green is a constituency in North East London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Sir Iain Duncan Smith of the Conservative Party since its creation in 1997.
The seat covers the outer London commuter suburbs of Chingford, Highams Park and Woodford with high levels of owner-occupier housing,[3] along with part of Epping Forest. Once safely Conservative, the seat is now marginal with Labour due to young families and ethnic minority voters moving into the constituency.[4]
1997–2024: The London Borough of Waltham Forest wards of Chingford Green, Endlebury, Hale End and Highams Park, Hatch Lane, Larkswood, Valley, and the London Borough of Redbridge wards of Church End and Monkhams.
2024–present: The London Borough of Redbridge wards of Bridge, Churchfields, and Monkhams, and the London Borough of Waltham Forest wards of Chingford Green, Endlebury, Hatch End and Highams Park South (part), Hatch Lane and Highams Park North, Larswood (part), Valley, and Upper Walthamstow (part).[5]
Expanded to the south-east to include the Bridge ward and the remainder of the Churchfields ward, transferred from Ilford North. The part of the South Woodford ward was transferred to Leyton and Wanstead.
Before 1945, both Chingford and Woodford were part of the Epping parliamentary constituency, for which wartime Conservative Prime Minister Winston Churchill was MP. The Chingford and Woodford Green constituency was created in 1997 from parts of the former seats of Chingford and Wanstead and Woodford. Both seats previously had well-known MPs, Norman Tebbit and Winston Churchill respectively. Iain Duncan Smith had been MP for Chingford since 1992, then was elected MP for this constituency five years later in 1997.
At the seat's inauguration at the 1997 general election, there was a Conservative majority of over 5000 or 13%; the Conservatives retained the seat in 2001 with a majority little changed on a low turnout. In 2005, the Conservative incumbent did better, getting twice as many votes as Labour with a swing to the party of 6.4% (over double that nationally) from Labour.
The 2015 result gave the seat the 119th most marginal majority of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority.[6]
At the 2017 snap election, Duncan Smith was re-elected with a greatly reduced majority on a 7% swing to Labour, slightly more than a sixth of his 2010 margin.
The 2019 general election saw the Conservatives retaining the seat, although with a smaller majority than 2017 due to a swing to Labour, contrary to the national trend, making it the 15th most marginal Conservative seat by percentage of majority.
Faiza Shaheen, who had been Labour's candidate in 2019, was again selected as candidate by the local party in 2022, but was deselected after the July 2024 election was announced due to the nature of social media posts she had liked. She then resigned from the Labour Party and stood as an independent candidate for the constituency.[7] Prior to that, it was described as the 10th most likely seat to switch in a ranking of Labour's targets.[8]
| 2019 notional result[10] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Vote | % | |
| 26,322 | 48.2 | ||
| 24,718 | 45.3 | ||
| 3,193 | 5.8 | ||
| 213 | 0.4 | ||
| 160 | 0.3 | ||
| Turnout | 54,606 | 72.2 | |
| Electorate | 75,677 | ||