1974–1983: The London Borough of Hounslow wards of Clifden, Gunnersbury, Homefields, Hounslow Central, Hounslow South, Isleworth North, Isleworth South, Riverside, Spring Grove, and Turnham Green. 1983–1997: The above wards as renamed: Brentford Clifden, Chiswick Homefields, Chiswick Riverside, Gunnersbury, Hounslow Central, Hounslow South, Isleworth North, Isleworth South, Spring Grove, and Turnham Green. 1997–2010: As above plus Hounslow West. 2010–present: Wards in the same borough: Brentford, Chiswick Homefields, Chiswick Riverside, Hounslow Central, Hounslow Heath, Hounslow South, Isleworth, Osterley and Spring Grove, Syon, and Turnham Green.
Constituency profile
The seat is a mixture of very suburban London and urban district centres with many differing heights and types of homes. It stretches along the north bank of the Thames and then to the west, encompassing the London districts of Chiswick, most of Hounslow, Isleworth and former market town of Brentford. The seat is affluent nearest the Thames and Osterley Park yet has a few tall tower blocks and other council housing set back from it in parts of Isleworth and Brentford. Brentford has a wide range and long history of social housing which is mostly, by a narrow margin, private housing following the 1980s Right to Buy reform. Locally, 21st century development includes a large proportion of shared ownership and housing authority homes. The seat has more unemployment than London or the UK overall. About three wards make up Hounslow in the west and two Brentford in the centre which excluding its expensive Quay and North Quarter parts have an above-average rank in the Index of Multiple Deprivation, many homes affordable for workers on lower incomes and are generally strong for the Labour Party. In the far east are three Chiswick wards that return Conservative councillors. Chiswick's large public sector economic component and relatively young profile for a wealthy area sees a three-way or broader split in its general election votes. The only part of the seat with a London postcode - W4 it abounds with high-income office workers, small-to-mid-size business directors and senior governmental workers. Its parks, gardens, long Thames riverside, proximity to Hammersmith, its united Piccadilly and District tube lines and housing stock mean it resembles the Richmond Park seat socio-economically. The wards of Osterley, Spring Grove and Hounslow South have long alternated between, or generate a split result between, Conservative and Labour councillors and there is no incontrovertible evidence to prove if they lean more to the left of their local results in general elections. The Liberal Democrats took their largest share of the vote here in 2010 but their return, seldom, of local councillors means the party fell almost 10 points below a one-third share of the votes in what was essentially a three-candidate race. The Green Party kept its deposits in three of the four contests before 2017. In the election that year it chose not to field a candidate, in order to help Labour defend its 400-vote majority. ;Economy Brentford FC's Griffin Park ground is within the seat, as is Fuller's brewery and various headquarters of multinational and market-leading domestic companies including GlaxoSmithKline and BSkyB. The districts have tube or rail services east to London and west which are major centres of employment. ;Political history From 1979 until 2015 the seat proved to be a national bellwether. The 2015 result gave the seat the 4th most marginal majority of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority. During the seat's existence the two largest parties nationally have jostled for the winning candidate.
Split of votes in local council elections
In 2010 Council seats split evenly between the two main parties reflecting the result of the general election held on the same day, where the seat was narrowly gained by the Conservatives. From 1998-2001 three wards of the centre of the constituency saw the Independent Community Group have councillors, seven at their greatest. These wards were taken by Labour in 2010. Labour added Hounslow South in 2014 and took one of the three Osterley and Spring Grove seats leaving them with 19 seats and the Conservatives with 11. In 2018, Labour gained the remaining Conservative seats in Osterley and Spring Grove, which gave Labour 21 to the Conservatives on 9.
Members of Parliament
The constituency was created in 1974, mostly replacing the former seat of Brentford and Chiswick.
