The seat covers Ilford town centre and the surrounding suburbs, and the housing is predominantly semi-detached with little high-rise development. There is significant commuting to central London via the four stations on the Elizabeth line. The seat is ethnically diverse including white, black and Asian communities.[2]
This constituency was created in 1945. The previous MP since 1992, Mike Gapes, who before defecting to Change UK, was the fourth Labour Party MP, each of whose tenures was interspersed or preceded by one of a Conservative MP serving the area. Regarded as a key marginal seat for decades, under Gapes's tenure Ilford South became a very safe seat for the Labour Party; in every election since 1997 it has been won by a majority of over 20% by Labour, and in 2017 they secured over 75% of the vote in the constituency.
The 2015 result made the seat the 38th safest of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority.[4] The narrowest result since 1997 (inclusive) was in 2005 at a majority of 21.6%; the 2017 majority is the greatest ever achieved in the seat, at 54.9%.
Boundaries
Map of present boundaries
1945–1950: The Borough of Ilford wards of Clementswood, Cranbrook, Goodmayes, Loxford, and Park.
1950–1974: The Borough of Ilford wards of Clementswood, Cranbrook, Goodmayes, Loxford, Mayfield, and Park.
1974–1983: The London Borough of Redbridge wards of Clementswood, Cranbrook, Goodmayes, Ilford, Mayfield, and Park.
1983–1997: As above substituting Ilford and Park with reshaped wards Loxford, Newbury, and Valentines.
1997–2017: As above plus Chadwell and Seven Kings wards.
2017–present: Following a review of ward boundaries which became effective in May 2017,[5] the constituency comprises the following wards of the London Borough of Redbridge:
Chadwell; Clementswood; Cranbrook; Goodmayes; Ilford Town; Loxford; Mayfield; Newbury; Seven Kings; Valentines; and a small part of Wanstead Park ward.
The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham ward of Chadwell Heath.
The London Borough of Redbridge wards of: Chadwell; Clementswood; Goodmayes; Ilford Town; Loxford; Mayfield; Newbury; Seven Kings.[6]
The Cranbrook and Valentines wards will be transferred to Ilford North, with the small part of Wanstead Park ward going to Leyton and Wanstead. To partly compensate, the Chadwell Heath ward will be transferred from Dagenham and Rainham.
^A borough constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
^As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years.
References
^"Electorate Figures – Boundary Commission for England". 2011 Electorate Figures. Boundary Commission for England. 4 March 2011. Archived from the original on 6 November 2010. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
^Golam Tipu [@MaulaTipu] (25 May 2024). "I am honoured and grateful to announce that I have been selected as the parliamentary candidate for @georgegalloway's @WorkersPartyGB in Ilford South…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
^"Ilford South Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
^Statement of Persons Nominated and Notice of Poll London Borough of Redbridge
^"Ilford South parliamentary constituency". BBC News.
^"General Election 2017: results and analysis" (PDF). House of Commons Library. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
^"Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.