Chelsea and Fulham (UK Parliament constituency)

Following the review of parliamentary representation in London, the boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham were paired for constituency allocation purposes and allocated three seats between them.

This broke the previous pairings of Kensington and Chelsea with the City of Westminster, and of Hammersmith and Fulham with the London Borough of Ealing, and therefore abolished the seats Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea with their "spillover" cross-boundary seats of Regents Park and Kensington North and Ealing Acton and Shepherds Bush.

The historical constituency of Kensington was recreated, and the Hammersmith seat was also revived.

The new constituency of Chelsea and Fulham was made up of the following electoral wards:^[3]

• From the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham: Fulham Broadway, Munster, Palace Riverside, Parsons Green and Walham, Sands End, Town.
• From the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Brompton and Hans Town, Chelsea Riverside, Redcliffe, Royal Hospital, Stanley.

Following the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the constituency is composed of:

• The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham wards of Fulham Reach, Fulham Town, Lillie, Munster, Palace & Hurlingham, Parsons Green & Sandford, Sands End, Walham Green, and West Kensington.

• The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea wards of Chelsea Riverside, Redcliffe, Royal Hospital, and Stanley.^[4]

The new boundaries reflect revised local authority ward structures. To bring the electorate within the permitted range, the Hammersmith and Fulham wards of Fulham Reach and West Kensington were transferred in from the abolished constituency of Hammersmith. The whole of the Kensington and Chelsea ward of Brompton and Hans Town is now included in the new constituency of Kensington and Bayswater.

The constituency includes affluent areas and opulent private housing. The small amount of social housing in the constituency is concentrated in the smaller than ward-size Worlds End Estate. An alternative in-depth analysis, of local elections, confirms one ward has seen opposition members in elections since the 1980s, of 11 wards forming the seat. At the 2010 election, only five other constituencies voted more strongly for the Conservative Party: Richmond (Yorkshire), Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, Windsor (Berkshire), Hampshire North East and Chesham and Amersham also in Buckinghamshire.^[5]

Somewhat surprisingly, however, in the 2017 United Kingdom general election the Conservative majority in Chelsea and Fulham was almost halved from 16,022 to 8,188, making it only the eighth-safest Conservative seat in Greater London (with several other seats such as Romford and Bexleyheath and Crayford proving safer for the Tories despite previously electing Labour MPs in the Blair era, whilst Chelsea never did).

In the early 1960s the Chelsea Labour Party (old boundaries) created the National Campaign for the Young Chronic Sick, led by constituency member (Mr) Marsh Dickson, which generated national TV and newspaper coverage leading to the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 promoted as a Private Members Bill by Alf Morris MP.

To return to a reduced the number of MPs (600 nationally) it was proposed that the Chelsea and Fulham constituency would be abolished and merged into two constituencies of Hammersmith & Fulham, a notional Labour seat, and Kensington & Chelsea, a notional Conservative seat.^[6]

The football grounds at Stamford Bridge and Craven Cottage are in the seat, which is the chosen home of many of London's elite footballers, as well as other wealthy celebrities. The constituency includes the fashionable King's Road thoroughfare, a key destination for shopping and culture.

For results of predecessor seats, see Kensington and Chelsea, and Hammersmith and Fulham.

* Served as an MP in the 2005–2010 Parliament

The new seat of Chelsea and Fulham was fought for the first time at the 2010 general election, when it had a notional Conservative majority of over 10,000 based on 2005 election results.^[17]

• List of parliamentary constituencies in London

• nomis Constituency Profile for Chelsea and Fulham — presenting data from the ONS annual population survey and other official statistics.
• Politics Resources (Election results from 1922 onwards)
• Electoral Calculus (Election results from 1955 onwards)
• Chelsea and Fulham UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at MapIt UK
• Chelsea and Fulham UK Parliament constituency (boundaries from June 2024) at MapIt UK

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