Putney (UK Parliament constituency)

Putney is a constituency in Greater London in England, within the Borough of Wandsworth. It covers the areas of Putney, Southfields, Roehampton and parts of Wandsworth.

This is a wealthy, suburban constituency located around 5 miles (8.0 km) south-west of the centre of London. Putney is affluent and contains a mixture of large Victorian houses, dense Edwardian terraces and post-war flats. Roehampton has high levels of deprivation and contains the Alton Estate, one of the UK's largest council estates.^[2] The area is also home to the University of Roehampton, which has around 12,000 students.^[3] Wandsworth is located on the south bank of the River Thames and most of its industrial docks have been redeveloped into expensive high-rise apartment buildings. House prices across the constituency are higher than the rest of London and the average price is almost triple the UK average.^[4]

Putney has a large young adult population and a low proportion of retirees.^[5] Residents have high levels of income but low rates of homeownership.^[4] The child poverty rate is below-average.^[6] Residents are highly-educated and a large proportion work in the accommodation, education and arts sectors.^[4][7] The percentage claiming unemployment benefits is in line with the UK-wide figure.^[6] White people made up 69% of the population at the 2021 census. Around a third of the White population are of non-British origin, including large Irish, Italian and Polish communities. Asians made up 12% of residents and Black people were 8%.^[8]

Most of the constituency is represented by Conservatives at the local borough council, with some Labour Party councillors elected in the more deprived west. Voters in Putney overwhelmingly supported remaining in the European Union in the 2016 referendum; an estimated 73% voted to remain compared to the UK-wide rate of 48%, making Putney one of the top 25 most remain-supporting constituencies out of 650 across the UK according to Electoral Calculus.^[4]

When created in 1918 the constituency was carved out of the west of the abolished seat Wandsworth. The rest of the latter formed Wandsworth Central, Balham and Tooting and Streatham. Putney formed one of the divisions of the Parliamentary Borough of Wandsworth.

Political history

The seat was Conservative from 1918 until 1964, in a national context of Labour marginal wins in the 1920s, the landslide Labour victory in 1945 and the narrower Labour win in 1950. Following the Labour win of 1964, the fairly narrow Heath ministry win of 1970 failed to tip the seat back to the Conservative Party, and the seat was held by Labour for 15 years with Hugh Jenkins as MP.

Putney was next held by Conservative Secretary of State for National Heritage David Mellor from 1979 until 1997 during the party's successive national governments; the 1997 Labour landslide saw Putney gained by Tony Colman (Lab) and a signal early-declared result as the landslide unfolded.^{[n 1]}

Putney was the first Conservative gain on election night in 2005, when Justine Greening took back the seat from Labour on a two-party swing (Lab-Con) of 6.5%. The 2015 result gave the seat the 148th most marginal majority of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority, similar to the 2010 result.^[16] The 2017 election saw Greening re-elected, but with a 10% swing to Labour; this heavy swing against the Conservatives has been attributed to the fact that the Borough of Wandsworth (of which Putney is part) voted 75% in favour of remaining in the European Union in the previous year's referendum. In 2019, Putney was the only seat in the country gained by Labour, amid the worst election results for the party since 1935.^[17] Labour would retain the seat in their landslide victory nearly five years later with a larger majority.

• parliamentary constituencies in London