Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 general election and was based on ward boundaries in place at 1 December 2020, the Chadwell Heath ward was moved to Ilford South. To compensate, the Barking and Dagenham Borough ward of Valence and parts of the Havering Borough wards of St Andrew's and Hacton (mainly to the west of Abbs Cross Lane and South End Road) were transferred in from Barking, and Hornchurch and Upminster respectively.[2]
Following local government boundary reviews in Barking and Dagenham,[3][4] and Havering[5][6] which came into effect in May 2022, the constituency now comprises the following from the 2024 general election:
The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham wards of: Alibon (part); Beam; Chadwell Heath (small part); Eastbrook and Rush Green; Goresbrook (small part); Heath; Parsloes; (small part); Valence (majority); Village; Whalebone
The London Borough of Havering wards of: Beam Park; Elm Park; Rainham and Wennington; South Hornchurch; and a very small part of Hacton ward.[7]
History
Before 1945 the Dagenham area was part of the Romford constituency. The MP for the latter seat since 1935, Labour's John Parker, continued to represent Dagenham until 1983. Parker was the last serving MP to have been elected before the Second World War, and with 48 years in Parliament, was the longest-serving Labour MP in history, a record he held until December 2017. The seat was first contested in the 2010 general election which resulted from the Boundary Commission's report that recommended merging the majority of the former constituencies of Dagenham and Hornchurch and added to existing electoral wards a small part of River ward was also transferred from Barking.
In 2010 Labour's Jon Cruddas took the seat gaining a marginal 5.9% win, facing a strong nominal (ward-by-ward) Lab–Con swing measured against the previous forerunner seats and candidates. BNP candidate Michael Barnbrook came third with 11.2% of the vote, his party's second-best showing in the election. In 2015, Cruddas, incumbent won an 11.6% majority; the runner-up party changed to being UKIP closely followed by the Conservative candidate.
In 2019, Cruddas' majority was cut to just 293 votes, the lowest Labour majority in Dagenham ever, which has been represented by Labour MPs since 1945.
The electoral wards in both boroughs were redrawn in 2022 and subsequently the constituency no longer aligns with ward boundaries.
Constituency profile
The constituency may retain significant pockets of poverty indicated by a high ranking in the Index of Multiple Deprivation compiled in the year 2000 however average incomes were in four large wards close to the national average.[8] The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham saw the most rapid decrease in people of White British ethnicity in the 10 years to the 2011 census, of 31.4 percentage points. However the same dataset shows that 58.3% of people are white in the seat, which is similar to the Greater London average. An established area of settlement for British people of Asian ethnicity with 15.9% of this background, the neighbouring London Borough of Newham has a much higher proportion of residents with Asian heritage, 43.5%.[9]
^"Forest Heath (East of England) was the only local authority to see an increase in White British between 2001 and 2011 (by 0.8 percentage points). The proportion of White British decreased in the remaining local authorities in England and Wales, with the largest decrease in Barking and Dagenham at 31.4 percentage points." 2011 Census statisticsArchived 2013-01-10 at the Wayback Machine
^"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived(PDF) from the original on 29 March 2020. Retrieved 15 November 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)