West Central (London Assembly constituency)
West Central is a constituency represented on the London Assembly. The seat is currently held by Tony Devenish, a Conservative.
| Territorial constituency for the London Assembly | |
 West Central shown within London | |
| Created | 2000 |
|---|---|
| Number of members | One |
| Member | Tony Devenish |
| Party | Conservative |
| Last election | 2016 |
| Next election | 2021 |
It covers the combined area of the City of Westminster, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
History
Since the seat's creation in 2000, the elected Assembly Member (AM) has always been a Conservative candidate: three have represented the seat in succession. Its first AM was Angie Bray, who subsequently served as MP for Ealing Central and Acton. She was followed by Kit Malthouse in 2008, who was elected as MP for North West Hampshire in 2015, thus acting as an AM and MP for the remainder of his term on the London Assembly. He was succeeded in 2016 by Tony Devenish, who has been a councillor for Knightsbridge and Belgravia in Westminster (part of the GLA seat) since 2006.
At the time of the 2016 London Assembly elections, two of the MPs for the five parliamentary constituencies covered by this seat were members of the Labour Party, and the other three from the Conservatives; Labour have always been the main challenger in the corresponding GLA seat. It includes a number of affluent areas which have tended to vote for Conservative candidates in local and general elections, accounting for the results to date.
After the 2016 election, defeated candidate Mandy Richards lodged an election petition claiming that the results showed a discrepancy in turnout and that 15,000–20,000 postal votes were missing.[1] The case was heard on 8 and 9 December 2016, with the result being all aspects of the petition were dismissed.[2]
Assembly members
| Election | Member | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Angie Bray | Conservative | |
| 2008 | Kit Malthouse | Conservative | |
| 2016 | Tony Devenish | Conservative | |
Overlapping constituencies
The West Central Assembly constituency comprises all of the following UK Parliament constituencies:
- Chelsea and Fulham (Conservative)
- Hammersmith (Labour)
- Kensington (Conservative)
- Westminster North (Labour)
It also includes parts of the following constituencies:
- Cities of London and Westminster (Conservative)
Election results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Tony Devenish | 67,775 | 44.2 | -6.2 | |
| Labour | Mandy Richards | 53,211 | 34.7 | +4.2 | |
| Green | Jennifer Nadel | 14,050 | 9.2 | +0.5 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Annabel Mullin | 10,577 | 5.9 | -1 | |
| UKIP | Clive Egan | 7,708 | 5.0 | +1.5 | |
| Majority | 14,564 | 9.5 | -10.3 | ||
| Total formal votes | |||||
| Informal votes | |||||
| Turnout | 153,321 | 45 | 5.8 | ||
| Conservative hold | Swing | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Kit Malthouse | 73,761 | 50.4 | -1.7 | |
| Labour | Todd Foreman | 44,630 | 30.5 | +9.3 | |
| Green | Susanna Rustin | 12,799 | 8.7 | -1.4 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Layla Moran | 10,035 | 6.9 | -2.7 | |
| UKIP | Elizabeth Jones | 5,161 | 3.5 | +1.7 | |
| Majority | 29,131 | 19.8 | – 11.1 | ||
| Turnout | 149,419 | 39.2 | -9.3 | ||
| Conservative hold | Swing | -5.5 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Kit Malthouse | 86,651 | 52.1 | +7.4 | |
| Labour | Murad Qureshi | 35,270 | 21.2 | +2.3 | |
| Green | Julia Stephenson | 16,874 | 10.1 | +0.8 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Merlene Emerson | 15,934 | 9.6 | –5.5 | |
| UKIP | Paul Wiffen | 3,060 | 1.8 | –4.4 | |
| English Democrat | Alex Vaughan | 1,858 | 1.1 | N/A | |
| Left List | Explo Nani-Kofi | 1,630 | 1.0 | N/A | |
| Independent | Abby Dharamsey | 962 | 0.6 | N/A | |
| Majority | 51,381 | 30.9 | +5.1 | ||
| Turnout | 166,379 | 48.5 | +15.6 | ||
| Conservative hold | Swing | +2.5 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Angie Bray | 51,884 | 44.7 | +0.5 | |
| Labour | Ansuya Sodha | 21,940 | 18.9 | –8.1 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Francesco Fruzza | 17,478 | 15.1 | +1.9 | |
| Green | Julia Stephenson | 10,762 | 9.3 | –2.2 | |
| UKIP | Damian Hockney | 7,219 | 6.2 | N/A | |
| Respect | Kevin Cobham | 4,825 | 4.1 | N/A | |
| CPA | Jillian McLachlan | 1,993 | 1.7 | N/A | |
| Majority | 29,944 | 25.8 | +8.6 | ||
| Turnout | 116,101 | 32.9 | +2.0 | ||
| Conservative hold | Swing | +4.3 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Angie Bray | 47,117 | 44.2 | ||
| Labour | Kate Green | 28,838 | 27.0 | ||
| Liberal Democrats | Jon Burden | 14,071 | 13.2 | ||
| Green | Julia Stephenson | 12,254 | 11.5 | ||
| London Socialist | Christine Blower | 2,720 | 2.6 | ||
| Homeless and Addicted | Stephen Smith | 1,600 | 1.5 | ||
| Majority | 18,279 | 17.2 | |||
| Turnout | 106,600 | 30.9 | |||
| Conservative hold | Swing | N/A | |||
References
- "Petition notice" (PDF). 20 June 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
- "Richards v Devenish & Anor [2017] EWHC 37 (QB) England and Wales High Court (Queen's Bench Division) Judgment Law CaseMine". Retrieved 1 September 2019.
- "BBC NEWS | Election 2008 | London Elections: West Central". news.bbc.co.uk.
- "BBC NEWS | In Depth | Vote 2004 | London Elections: West Central". news.bbc.co.uk.
- London & Local Elections 2000: West Central, BBC News