Post by John Chanin on Aug 21, 2023 14:46:09 GMT
This seat is the heart of the old East End with a long and varied history, as well as an interesting recent political history. It extends from Whitechapel and Spitalfields right on the border with the City of London in the west, to Bethnal Green in the north-east, and Stepney in the south-east and to the north it blends imperceptibly into Shoreditch. This area on the edge of the City was famous historically for its poverty and its rookeries. It was also classically an area of immigrants. Spitalfields was the home of Huguenot weavers fleeing religious conflict in the late 1600s, and as the community prospered many fine houses were built. Later there was an influx of Irish, and in the late 1800s it became the home of Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe. This was the location of Jack the Ripper, and life in the old Jewish tenements has been documented by Jerry White in his fine book about Rothschild Buildings in Flower & Dean Street. The Jewish population has long moved out, and the area is now known as the heart of the Bangladeshi community in Britain, now over half the population in Stepney, and over a third in the rest of the seat, with the ward surrounding the commercial centre of Brick Lane, with its textile shops and restaurants, renamed Spitalfields and Banglatown.
Like virtually all the east London seats the old one is seriously oversized with nearly 90,000 voters. Shadwell ward is to come in from Poplar & Limehouse, and the two Bow wards are being removed to a new Stratford & Bow seat. The seat is accordingly renamed Bethnal Green & Stepney. Shadwell is one of the most Bangladeshi wards in the borough, and Bow on the contrary has the lowest Bangladeshi population by some margin. This will strengthen the Bangladeshi influence here, and the revised seat is now close to majority Muslim, the 6th largest percentage in the country, and by far the highest Bangladeshi population. The seat also has the 6th highest percentage of social rented households in the country, and is famous for the very first council estate, built at Boundary Road (appropriately on the boundary with Shoreditch) at the end of the 1800s on the site of the Old Nichol rookery. It also has the lowest proportion of owner-occupiers. The high figures for managerial jobs and educational qualifications are slightly misleading, this being London. There is certainly some expensive modern housing on the edge of the City, but there are not many managers of Bangladeshi origin working in senior jobs here. However very many work in lower managerial jobs, and the young population, plus the high valuation on educational qualifications in the Bangladeshi community, have led to one of the highest number of degree holders in the country. Internally it is fairly uniform, although the white population is higher in Bethnal Green, and Whitechapel on the edge of the City is particularly high in private renting and managerial occupations, while educational qualifications are lower in Stepney.
No consideration of politics in Tower Hamlets can take place without discussion of the Lutfur Rahman phenomenon. A lawyer, first elected as a Labour councillor for Spitalfields in 2002, he became leader of the council in 2008. After Tower Hamlets voted to have a directly elected mayor, he was selected as the Labour candidate, but was disqualified by the national Labour Party, whether justly or not, on grounds of his connection with fundamentalist muslim organizations. He then chose to run as an independent, winning comfortably in 2010, but much more narrowly in 2014 after criticism of his tenure. Tower Hamlets had got a reputation for incompetence and patronage at best, leading to his eventual disqualification by the courts. After election as mayor he set up his own Tower Hamlets First party which won 13/18 seats in this constituency at the 2014 elections. Following his disqualification, Labour’s John Biggs took over as mayor, and a split in Tower Hamlets First led to Labour winning every council seat here in 2018, with the exception of one in Shadwell. With the end of his disqualification Rahman has made a comeback, winning the election for mayor in 2022, and seeing his new Aspire party take a majority on the council, controversially with solely male Bangladeshi councillors. Aspire won 12 seats here compared to 7 retained by Labour, with most wards split and all of them close. It would be unfair to see Rahman as a fundamentalist religious figure. He is resolutely secular, while seeking to promote the interests of his Bangladeshi supporters, and quite class conscious as might be expected from someone originally a Labour politician in an area with considerable poverty.
The parliamentary story here is also interesting. In 1997 this was one of two constituencies in the country to swing against Labour, when Labour’s new half Jewish, half black candidate, Oona King, was opposed by a Conservative from the Bangladeshi community. As the Bangladeshi population grew, this became one of the areas that the new Respect Party, founded originally in 2004 as an anti-Iraq war party, but subsequently a curious amalgam of socialist and muslim groups, gained considerable support. At the 2005 General Election, the seat was famously won by George Galloway, standing for Respect. Ironically Labour fought off Respect locally under Lutfur Rahman’s leadership, and Galloway chose to stand in neighbouring Poplar & Limehouse in 2010, as he had promised to give way to a muslim candidate. The leader of the Respect group on the council stood, but only finished third behind the Liberal Democrats. Elected for Labour was Rushanara Ali, the first MP of Bangladeshi descent, and one of the first female muslim MPs. She is still the MP, and was briefly part of the shadow frontbench team under Ed Miliband, and has returned to the front bench in the new government. The seat reverted to very safe Labour status at the previous three elections, but Ali had a real scare in 2024, as her vote more than halved, and the muslim independent came within 4% of victory.
Census data: Owner-occupied 23% (575/575 in England & Wales), private rented 37% (25th), social rented 41% (6th).
: White 36%(561st), Black 7%(102nd), South Asian 45%(8th), Mixed 4%(94th), Other 8%(80th)
: Managerial & professional 50% (67th), Routine & Semi-routine 23% (428th)
: Degree 46% (55th), Minimal qualifications 25% (375th)
: Students 16% (37th), Over 65: 6% (573rd)
: Muslim 47% (6th)
Boundaries : The new seat is made up of 87% from Bethnal Green & Bow, and 13% from Poplar & Limehouse
75% of the old seat is in the new one, with 25% going to Stratford & Bow
Note: the second placed independent polled 14,207 votes, while 5 other candidates managed 1,492 between them.
Like virtually all the east London seats the old one is seriously oversized with nearly 90,000 voters. Shadwell ward is to come in from Poplar & Limehouse, and the two Bow wards are being removed to a new Stratford & Bow seat. The seat is accordingly renamed Bethnal Green & Stepney. Shadwell is one of the most Bangladeshi wards in the borough, and Bow on the contrary has the lowest Bangladeshi population by some margin. This will strengthen the Bangladeshi influence here, and the revised seat is now close to majority Muslim, the 6th largest percentage in the country, and by far the highest Bangladeshi population. The seat also has the 6th highest percentage of social rented households in the country, and is famous for the very first council estate, built at Boundary Road (appropriately on the boundary with Shoreditch) at the end of the 1800s on the site of the Old Nichol rookery. It also has the lowest proportion of owner-occupiers. The high figures for managerial jobs and educational qualifications are slightly misleading, this being London. There is certainly some expensive modern housing on the edge of the City, but there are not many managers of Bangladeshi origin working in senior jobs here. However very many work in lower managerial jobs, and the young population, plus the high valuation on educational qualifications in the Bangladeshi community, have led to one of the highest number of degree holders in the country. Internally it is fairly uniform, although the white population is higher in Bethnal Green, and Whitechapel on the edge of the City is particularly high in private renting and managerial occupations, while educational qualifications are lower in Stepney.
No consideration of politics in Tower Hamlets can take place without discussion of the Lutfur Rahman phenomenon. A lawyer, first elected as a Labour councillor for Spitalfields in 2002, he became leader of the council in 2008. After Tower Hamlets voted to have a directly elected mayor, he was selected as the Labour candidate, but was disqualified by the national Labour Party, whether justly or not, on grounds of his connection with fundamentalist muslim organizations. He then chose to run as an independent, winning comfortably in 2010, but much more narrowly in 2014 after criticism of his tenure. Tower Hamlets had got a reputation for incompetence and patronage at best, leading to his eventual disqualification by the courts. After election as mayor he set up his own Tower Hamlets First party which won 13/18 seats in this constituency at the 2014 elections. Following his disqualification, Labour’s John Biggs took over as mayor, and a split in Tower Hamlets First led to Labour winning every council seat here in 2018, with the exception of one in Shadwell. With the end of his disqualification Rahman has made a comeback, winning the election for mayor in 2022, and seeing his new Aspire party take a majority on the council, controversially with solely male Bangladeshi councillors. Aspire won 12 seats here compared to 7 retained by Labour, with most wards split and all of them close. It would be unfair to see Rahman as a fundamentalist religious figure. He is resolutely secular, while seeking to promote the interests of his Bangladeshi supporters, and quite class conscious as might be expected from someone originally a Labour politician in an area with considerable poverty.
The parliamentary story here is also interesting. In 1997 this was one of two constituencies in the country to swing against Labour, when Labour’s new half Jewish, half black candidate, Oona King, was opposed by a Conservative from the Bangladeshi community. As the Bangladeshi population grew, this became one of the areas that the new Respect Party, founded originally in 2004 as an anti-Iraq war party, but subsequently a curious amalgam of socialist and muslim groups, gained considerable support. At the 2005 General Election, the seat was famously won by George Galloway, standing for Respect. Ironically Labour fought off Respect locally under Lutfur Rahman’s leadership, and Galloway chose to stand in neighbouring Poplar & Limehouse in 2010, as he had promised to give way to a muslim candidate. The leader of the Respect group on the council stood, but only finished third behind the Liberal Democrats. Elected for Labour was Rushanara Ali, the first MP of Bangladeshi descent, and one of the first female muslim MPs. She is still the MP, and was briefly part of the shadow frontbench team under Ed Miliband, and has returned to the front bench in the new government. The seat reverted to very safe Labour status at the previous three elections, but Ali had a real scare in 2024, as her vote more than halved, and the muslim independent came within 4% of victory.
Census data: Owner-occupied 23% (575/575 in England & Wales), private rented 37% (25th), social rented 41% (6th).
: White 36%(561st), Black 7%(102nd), South Asian 45%(8th), Mixed 4%(94th), Other 8%(80th)
: Managerial & professional 50% (67th), Routine & Semi-routine 23% (428th)
: Degree 46% (55th), Minimal qualifications 25% (375th)
: Students 16% (37th), Over 65: 6% (573rd)
: Muslim 47% (6th)
Boundaries : The new seat is made up of 87% from Bethnal Green & Bow, and 13% from Poplar & Limehouse
75% of the old seat is in the new one, with 25% going to Stratford & Bow
| 2017 | % | 2019 | % | Notional | % | 2024 | % | |
| Labour | 42,969 | 71.8 | 44,052 | 72.7 | 36,720 | 73.5 | 15,896 | 34.1 |
| Conservative | 7,576 | 12.7 | 6,528 | 10.8 | 5,065 | 10.1 | 1,920 | 4.1 |
| Liberal Democrat | 2,982 | 5.0 | 5,892 | 9.7 | 4,634 | 9.3 | 4,777 | 10.2 |
| UKIP/Brexit/Reform | 894 | 1.5 | 1,081 | 1.8 | 992 | 2.0 | 1,964 | 4.2 |
| Green | 1,516 | 2.5 | 2,570 | 4.2 | 2,101 | 4.2 | 6,391 | 13.7 |
| Other | 3,888 | 6.5 | 439 | 0.7 | 439 | 0.9 | 15,699 | 33.7 |
| Majority | 35,393 | 59.2 | 37,524 | 62.0 | 31,655 | 63.4 | 1,689 | 3.6 |
Note: the second placed independent polled 14,207 votes, while 5 other candidates managed 1,492 between them.