Hackney North and Stoke Newington

Hackney North and Stoke Newington (UK Parliament constituency)

Hackney North and Stoke Newington is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Wards

Boundaries

The constituency borders four others. Islington North to the west, Tottenham to the north, Walthamstow to the east and Hackney South & Shoreditch to the south. It is currently divided into ten wards and each represented by three councillors sitting together with members from Hackney South & Shoreditch in the London Borough of Hackney’s council chamber.

History

The constituency has gone through many changes and has only recently, in January 2006 seen the boundary moved again, this time to correspond with the local government ward boundaries.

Elections have been held here since De Montfort's Parliament in 1265 for the county constituency of Middlesex (UK Parliament constituency). The first division of the historic county was for the two seat constituency of Hackney (UK Parliament constituency) at the 1868 general election. This was a creation of the Second Reform Act or the officially termed Representation of the People Act, 1867. Hackney's increased democratic representation provided suffrage for the first time to working-class men but was originally intended to increase the number of seats held in the House of Commons by the Conservative Party.

Following even greater electoral reform of the Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, part of the Third Reform Act, the seat became Hackney North (UK Parliament constituency) and this time returned only one constituency Member of Parliament in the 1885 general election.

The Stoke Newington (UK Parliament constituency) was created in the 1918 general election by the division of the Hackney North constituency by the Representation of the People Act, 1918, known generally as Fourth Reform Act; an Act most importantly remembered for the first time extending suffrage to women.

Following a decrease in the population the two constituencies were merged by the Representation of the People Act, 1948, retaining David Weitzman as MP and becoming the current constituency in the 1950 general election.