Kensington and Chelsea Borough constituency
Kensington and Chelsea shown within Greater London
Created:	1997
MP:	Sir Malcolm Rifkind
Party:	Conservative
Type:	House of Commons
County:	Greater London
EP constituency:	London

Kensington and Chelsea is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is one of the safest Conservative seats in the United Kingdom, and since its creation in 1997, has become a prestigious seat, with MP Alan Clark, the former Defence Secretary Michael Portillo and the former Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind all holding the seat for the Conservatives.

Contents 1 Boundaries 2 History 3 Members of Parliament 4 Election results 4.1 Elections in the 2000s 4.2 Elections in the 1990s 5 See also 6 References

[edit] Boundaries

The constituency covers the central and southern portions of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, covering the centres of both Kensington and Chelsea.

Following their review into parliamentary boundaries in North London, the Boundary Commission have created two new constituencies based on the existing Kensington & Chelsea.

The northern section (namely Earl's Court, South Kensington, High Street Kensington and Holland Park) will be combined with the southern section of the current Regent's Park & Kensington North constituency (including Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill) to create a new Kensington constituency whilst the southern part (namely Chelsea) will be combined with the southern half of the current Hammersmith & Fulham constituency to create a new Chelsea and Fulham seat.

[edit] History

The seat first came into existence at the 1997 general election. Notional calculations indicated that it would be one of the safest Conservative seats in the country and so the Conservative nomination has been much sought. In the run up to the 1997 election the nomination was initially won by Nicholas Scott, MP for the Chelsea constituency, but following allegations of alcoholism he was deselected. Tabloids reported that he was "found kissing the pavement".

The nomination was subsequently secured by Alan Clark, the former minister and diarist who was seeking to return to the Commons after standing down at the 1992 general election. Clark was elected, but died after only two years. As a safe Conservative seat in London there was much speculation that former Defence Secretary and widely-predicted future Conservative leader Michael Portillo would seek to return to the Commons after losing the Enfield Southgate constituency in the 1997 election. Portillo was elected in a by-election but his subsequent career stalled and he crashed out of the 2001 Conservative Party leadership election and withdrew to the backbenches. In 2003 he announced that he was going to retire from politics and seek a career in the media. Another former Cabinet Minister, Sir Malcolm Rifkind was nominated and elected in the 2005 general election.

In October 2007 former Labour minister Tony Benn announced that he wanted to come out of retirement and return to the Commons, offering himself to the Kensington and Chelsea constituency Labour Party to challenge Rifkind for his seat in the next general election.^[1][2]

[edit] Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1997	Alan Clark	Conservative
	1999 by-election	Michael Portillo	Conservative
	2005	Sir Malcolm Rifkind	Conservative

[edit] Election results

[edit] Elections in the 2000s

Next United Kingdom general election: Kensington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Malcolm Rifkind
	Labour	Sam Gurney

General Election 2005: Kensington and Chelsea
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Malcolm Rifkind	18,144	57.9	+3.5
	Liberal Democrat	Jennifer Kingsley	5,726	18.3	+2.5
	Labour	Catherine Atkinson	5,521	17.6	−5.6
	Green	Julia Stephenson	1,342	4.3	+0.2
	UKIP	Mildred Eiloart	395	1.3	−0.2
	Independent	Alfred Bovill	107	0.3	N/A
	Alliance for Green Socialism	Eddie Adams	101	0.3	N/A
Majority			12,418	39.6
Turnout			31,336	50.0	+6.7
	Conservative hold		Swing	+0.5

General Election 2001: Kensington and Chelsea
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Portillo	15,270	54.5	+0.8
	Labour	Simon Stanley	6,499	23.2	–4.8
	Liberal Democrat	Kishwer Falkner	4,416	15.8	+0.5
	Green	Julia Stephenson	1,158	4.1	n/a
	UKIP	Damian Hockney	416	1.5	n/a
	ProLife Alliance	Josephine Quintavalle	179	0.6	n/a
	Jam Wrestling Party	Ginger Crab	100	0.4	n/a
Majority			8,771	31.3
Turnout			28,038	43.3	–11.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

[edit] Elections in the 1990s

1999 by-election: Kensington and Chelsea
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Portillo	11,004	56.4	+2.8
	Labour	Robert Atkinson	4,298	22.0	–5.9
	Liberal Democrat	Robert Woodthorpe Browne	1,831	9.4	–5.9
	Pro-Euro Conservative	John Stevens	740	3.8
	UKIP	Damian Hockney	450	2.3	+0.9
	Green	Hugo Charlton	446	2.3
	Democratic Party	The Earl of Burford	182	0.9
	Legalise Cannabis	Colin Paisley	141	0.7
	Independent	Dr. Michael Irwin	97	0.5
	UK Pensioners Party	Paul Oliver	75	0.4	–0.1
	Independent Referendum Party	Stephen Scott-Fawcett	57	0.3
	Independent	Louise Hodges	48	0.3
	Natural Law	Ged Valente	35	0.2	0.1
	ProLife Alliance	Lisa Lovebucket	26	0.1
	Independent	John Davies	24	0.1
	Independent	Peter May	24	0.1
	Monster Raving Loony	Alan Hope	20	0.1
	Independent	Tony Samuelson	15	0.1
Majority			6,706	34.4
Turnout				29.7
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1997: Kensington and Chelsea
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alan Clark	19,887	53.6	–14.6
	Labour	Robert Atkinson	10,368	27.9	+11.3
	Liberal Democrat	Robert Woodthorpe Browne	5,668	15.3	+2.1
	UKIP	Andrew Ellis-Jones	540	1.3
	Teddy Bear Alliance	Edward Bear	218	0.6
	United Kingdom Pensioners Party	Paul Oliver	176	0.5
	Natural Law	Susan Hamza	122	0.3
	Rainbow Dream Ticket	Paul Sullivan	65	0.2
	Independent	Pete Parliament	44	0.1
Majority			9,519	25.7
Turnout					54.7
	Conservative hold		Swing

[edit] See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London
• Kensington and Chelsea by-election, 1999

[edit] References

• BBC News (2005). Election 2005 - Kensington & Chelsea. Retrieved May 3, 2005.

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Coordinates: 51°29′38″N 0°11′10″W / 51.494°N 0.186°W / 51.494; -0.186