Lambeth Central (UK Parliament constituency)

Lambeth Central
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	Greater London
1974–1983
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Vauxhall, Streatham and Norwood[1]
Created from	Brixton

Lambeth Central was a parliamentary constituency in the London Borough of Lambeth, in South London. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first-past-the-post voting system.

The constituency was created for the February 1974 general election, and abolished for the 1983 general election, when most of its territory was transferred to the redrawn Vauxhall constituency.

This short-lived seat is best known for the by-election of 1978. This was controversial because of a high-profile campaign by the National Front in one of the most racially diverse constituencies in the UK.

Boundaries

The London Borough of Lambeth wards of Angell, Clapham Town, Ferndale, Larkhall, and Town Hall.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	Feb 1974	Marcus Lipton	Labour
	1978 by-election	John Tilley	Labour
	1983	constituency abolished

Elections

Election	Political result		Candidate		Party	Votes	%	±%
February 1974 General Election Electorate: 48,510 Turnout: 62.3%		Labour hold Majority: 7,369 (24.4%)		Lt-Col Marcus Lipton CBE	Labour	15,954	52.8
				Christopher Francis Patten	Conservative	8,585	28.4
				Eric Grenier Thwaites	Liberal	5,226	17.3
				Sylvester Gabriel Smart	Workers Revolutionary	337	1.1
				Ekins Denton Brome	Marxist-Leninist (England)	107	0.4
October 1974 General Election Electorate: 48,716 Turnout: 52.6%		Labour hold Majority: 8,677 (33.9%)		Lt-Col Marcus Lipton CBE [lower-alpha 1]	Labour	15,381	60.1	+7.3
				Nicholas Walter Lyell	Conservative	6,704	26.2	–2.2
				Peter Roderick Easton	Liberal	3,211	12.5	–4.8
				Sylvester Gabriel Smart	Workers Revolutionary	233	0.9	–0.2
				Peter John Bratton	Marxist-Leninist (England)	88	0.3	–0.1
By-election, 20 April 1978 Electorate: 46,826 Turnout: 44.5%		Labour hold Majority: 3,141 (15.0%)		John Vincent Tilley	Labour	10,311	49.4	–10.7
				Jeremy James Hanley	Conservative	7,170	34.4	+8.2
				Mrs Helena Mary Steven	National Front	1,291	6.2
				David John Blunt	Liberal	1,104	5.3	–7.2
				John Chase	Socialist Unity	287	1.4
				Corin William Redgrave	Workers Revolutionary	271	1.3	+0.4
				Anthony Bogues	Socialist Workers	201	1.0
				Barry Kenneth McNeeney	Socialist (GB)	91	0.4
				Alan Whereat	Homes, Employment, Anti-Racial Discrimination	55	0.3
				Stuart Monro	South London People's Front	38	0.2
				William George Boaks	Democratic Monarchist Public Safety White Resident	27	0.1
1979 General Election Electorate: 43,678 Turnout: 63.2%		Labour hold Majority: 5,976 (21.6%)		John Vincent Tilley	Labour	15,101	54.7	–5.4
				Jeremy James Hanley	Conservative	9,125	33.1	+6.9
				David John Blunt	Liberal	2,339	8.5	–4.0
				Mrs. Vera Florence Lillington	National Front	830	3.0
				Corin William Redgrave	Workers Revolutionary	152	0.5	–0.4
				Alan Whereat	Independent	50	0.2

Notes

1. Deceased, 22 February 1978

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "L" (part 1)

1. "'Lambeth Central', Feb 1974 - May 1983". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Retrieved 23 March 2016.