Barking

[John Chanin]

Barking sits to the east of the river Roding where it flows into the Thames, south of Ilford, and between East Ham and Dagenham. The centre of Barking is an old settlement, developed mainly in late Victorian and Edwardian times, full of older terraced private housing, now nearly 50% private rented, and with a large population of Indian descent. There is a distant history as a port before the river silted up. A large part of the constituency though, particularly since its expansion in 2010, consists of the giant Becontree estate, built by the LCC after the first world war, when it was the largest municipal estate in the world. Like many of the schemes at the time it was built to a high standard, with cottage dwellings with a parlour. As desirable homes more than half of the estate has been sold off under right to buy, although much has come back into renting through private landlords, both independently, and via homeless households from the inner city. It forms a reservoir of cheap housing that has also encouraged much purchase from families moving out to where they can afford to buy, particularly from the large concentration of ethnic minority households towards the centre. Half of all households are now from minorities - a large black population, mostly African, of over 20%, and a similar sized south Asian population, evenly split between those of Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi origin. While most of the estate is in Barking a section has been transferred to Dagenham & Rainham in the latest boundary changes. There is council housing elsewhere too. On the west of the constituency is the Gascoigne estate straddling the A13, with more council tenants these days than Becontree, and currently under redevelopment. North of the town centre is Longbridge - an owner-occupied area with a large Bangladeshi community.

At the south end of the seat, on former industrial land at risk of flooding, the new quarter of Barking Riverside is being built. This is aimed to be a mixed tenure development of over 10,000 homes for around 25,000 people on what is a large tract of land. However at present there is a shortage of facilities, and only a small proportion has so far been built. The Gospel Oak-Barking train line has recently been extended here, to improve the poor transport links. Barking Riverside has one of the largest black populations in the country - nearly 40% .

Politically Barking and Dagenham has always been monolithically Labour. Even in 1968, the worst ever year for Labour in London they comfortably retained control of the council. And this remains the case - every councillor for the last four local elections has been Labour. This is a very working class seat - the second lowest managerial proportion, and the second highest routine workers in the south of England, behind only neighbouring East Ham. The areas outside the council estates are a little up market, but not much. It is also a very young seat, with a low number of over 65s, even for London. In Barking Riverside only 3.5% are over 65 compared to the national average of 19%. While most of the Becontree estate may have been sold a third of households are still social housing tenants. Barking has nonetheless been affected by the changing political geography over the last few years. The BNP won councillors here in the first decade of the century, and made a big push in the 2010 general election achieving their highest vote anywhere. This vote was inherited by UKIP in 2015, but has subsequently faded somewhat as the ethnic minority share of voters has increased. There has never been a serious question of Labour losing here, but there was little enthusiasm in 2024 as their vote share dropped by 16%. The votes went not to the Conservatives, or even very much to Reform, although they gained a distant second place. The Green and Workers party vote combined was much higher, and half the Labour vote, reflecting the large Muslim community and Labour’s underwhelming performance generally in east London.

The former MP was Margaret Hodge, former leader of Islington Council, first elected here at a by-election in 1994. She was a minister throughout the last Labour government, and subsequently chair of the prestigious Public Accounts Committee until 2015. She stood down in 2024 and the new MP is Nesil Caliskan, former leader of Enfield Council and of Turkish Cypriot descent.

Census data: Owner-occupied 41% (538/575 in England & Wales), private rented 26% (96th), social rented 33% (22nd).
                      : White 42%(551st), Black 22%(15th), South Asian 25%(34th), Mixed 4%(100th), Other 7%(106th)
                      : Managerial & professional 30% (505th), Routine & Semi-routine 33% (158th)
                      : Degree 34% (231st), Minimal qualifications 33% (120th)
                      : Students 11% (70th) , Over 65: 8% (565th)
                      : Muslim 28%(24th)

Boundaries : The new seat is made up of 100% from Barking
                       91% of the old seat is in the new one, with 9% going to Dagenham & Rainham

	2017	%	2019	%	Notional	%	2024	%
Labour	32,319	67.8	27,219	61.2	24,996	60.9	16,227	44.5
Conservative	10,711	22.5	11,792	26.5	11,003	26.8	4,294	11.8
Liberal Democrat	599	1.3	1,482	3.3	1,356	3.3	1,015	2.8
UKIP/Brexit/Reform	3,031	6.4	3,186	7.2	2,914	7.1	5,173	14.2
Green	724	1.5	820	1.8	750	1.8	4,988	13.7
Workers							3,578	9.8
Other	295	0.6					1,202	3.3
Majority	21,608	45.3	15,427	34.7	13,993	34.1	11,054	30.3