| South West Hertfordshire | |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 1950 |
| Type: | County |
| Elects Howmany: | One |
| Previous: | Watford and Hemel Hempstead[1] |
| Electorate: | 71,552 (2023)[2] |
| Region: | England |
| Towns: | Rickmansworth Kings Langley |
South West Hertfordshire is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament, represented since 2019 by Gagan Mohindra, a Conservative.
This seat used to form a thin strip along the south-west border of Hertfordshire from South Oxhey in the south, through interspersed settlements and countryside to Tring in the north. Settlements in the constituency also included Berkhamsted, Chipperfield, Chorleywood, Croxley Green, Moor Park, Sarratt and Rickmansworth.
Elevated and bordering Greater London and Buckinghamshire, this part of Hertfordshire is for its residents mostly middle-class suburbia, an established haven for commuters who travel from the outer reaches of the London Underground's Metropolitan line or two railways from London which serve different parts of the seat: the West Coast Main Line and Aylesbury Line. A substantial proportion of land is occupied by farms and hillside woodland.[3]
Workless claimants were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 1.6% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.[4]
It is estimated that 51% of the seat voted Remain in the 2016 EU referendum.
The constituency was formed from the Watford Division of Hertfordshire, excluding the part comprising the Municipal Borough of Watford. It also included the parishes of Abbots Langley and Sarratt, transferred from Hemel Hempstead.
The parish of Aldenham in the Rural District of Watford was transferred to the new constituency of South Hertfordshire.
The parts of the District of Dacorum, including Berkhamsted, were transferred from the abolished constituency of Hemel Hempstead. Abbots Langley was transferred to Watford and Bushey to the new constituency of Hertsmere.
Gained Tring from the abolished constituency of West Hertfordshire. Kings Langley transferred to a re-established Hemel Hempstead, Bedmond to St Albans, and three further wards in the Three Rivers District to Watford.
Minor gain from Hemel Hempstead following revision of local authority wards.
Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the composition of the constituency is as follows (as they existed on 1 December 2020):
The constituency saw major changes with the bulk of the parts currently in the Borough of Dacorum, including the towns of Berkhamsted and Tring, forming part of the newly created constituency of Harpenden and Berkhamsted. The Bovingdon, Flaunden and Chipperfield ward went to Hemel Hempstead in exchange for the Kings Langley ward. The parts of the District of Three Rivers not previously within the constituency were transferred primarily from Watford, with a small area from St Albans.
Watford prior to 1950
| Election | Member | Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Gilbert Longden | Conservative | ||
| Feb 1974 | Geoffrey Dodsworth | Conservative | ||
| 1979 by-election | Richard Page | Conservative | ||
| 2005 | David Gauke | Conservative | ||
| September 2019 | Independent | |||
| December 2019 | Gagan Mohindra | Conservative | ||
| 2019 notional result[11] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Vote | % | |
| 26,548 | 52.2 | ||
| Others | 8,925 | 17.5 | |
| 8,182 | 16.1 | ||
| 6,460 | 12.7 | ||
| 763 | 1.5 | ||
| Turnout | 50,878 | 71.1 | |
| Electorate | 71,552 | ||