Acton (UK Parliament constituency)

Acton
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	1918–1965: Middlesex 1965–1983: Greater London
1950–1983
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Ealing Acton
1918–1950
Number of members	One
Type of constituency	County constituency
Created from	Ealing

Acton was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, created for the 1918 general election. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election.

The constituency was abolished for the 1983 general election, and replaced by the new Ealing Acton constituency.

Boundaries

File:Acton1918.png

Acton constituency within the parliamentary county of Middlesex, showing boundaries used from 1918-45

File:Acton1945.png

Acton constituency within the parliamentary county of Middlesex, showing boundaries used from 1945-50

The constituency came into existence in 1918, as a division of the county of Middlesex, to the west of the County of London. It was based on the town of Acton, which like most of Middlesex in the twentieth century became part of the London conurbation. The seat consisted of the Acton Urban District, which became a Municipal Borough in 1921.

In the redistribution of Parliamentary seats, which took effect at the United Kingdom general election, 1950, there was no change to the boundaries. However the constituency was re-classified as a borough constituency.

In 1965 the area became part of the London Borough of Ealing and Greater London.

In the redistribution which took effect at the February 1974 general election, the constituency became a division of Ealing (although it is not customary to use the London Borough prefix for the 1974-1983 period). The constituency consisted of six wards of the London Borough of Ealing - Central, East, Hanger Hill, Heathfield, Southfield and Springfield.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Sir Harry Brittain	Unionist
	1929	James Shillaker	Labour
	1931	Hubert Duggan	Conservative
	1943 by-election	Henry Longhurst	National Conservative
	1945	Joseph Sparks	Labour
	1959	Philip Holland	Conservative
	1964	Bernard Floud	Labour
	1968 by-election	Kenneth Baker	Conservative
	1970	Nigel Spearing	Labour
	Feb 1974	Sir George Young	Conservative
1983		constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1923: Acton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir Harry Ernest Brittain	8,943	42.6
	Labour	Herbert Alphonsus Baldwin	6,069	28.9
	Liberal	Bertram Arthur Levinson	5,981	28.5
Majority			2,874	13.7
Turnout			20,993	66.9
	Unionist hold		Swing

General election 1929: Acton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Frederick Shillaker	13,206	41.4	+17.4
	Unionist	Sir Harry Ernest Brittain	12,739	39.9	-14.2
	Liberal	Frank Medlicott	5,981	18.7	+5.5
Majority			467	1.5	31.6
Turnout			31,926	75.5
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing	+15.8

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1935

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Hubert Duggan	19,137	58.5
	Labour	W McLaine	13,559	41.5
Majority			5,578	17.1
Turnout				67.8

Elections in the 1940s

Acton by-election, 1943

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Carpenter Longhurst	5,014
	Ind. Labour Party	Walter Padley	2,336		N/A
	Independent	Dorothy Crisp	707		N/A
	Independent	Edward Godfrey	258		N/A
Majority			2,678
Turnout			8,315
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election 1945

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph Alfred Sparks	19,950	56.1
	Conservative	Henry Carpenter Longhurst	12,134	34.8
	Liberal	Francis Joseph Halpin	3,172	9.1
Majority			7,456	21.4
Turnout				77.8

Elections in the 1950s

General election 1950

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph Sparks	21,751	49.1
	Conservative	George F Willment	19,116	43.1
	Liberal	Miss Pauline Furniss	2,781	6.3
	Communist	Albert F Papworth	663	1.5
Majority			2,635	6.0
Turnout				87.8

General election 1951

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph Sparks	23,287	52.2
	Conservative	Lieutenant-Commander Leslie Frank Ramseyer	21,296	47.8
Majority			1,991	4.5
Turnout				86.9

General election 1955

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph Sparks	20,645	50.6
	Conservative	John Leslie Bott	20,120	49.4
Majority			525	1.3
Turnout				82.6

General election 1959

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Philip Holland	19,358	51.2
	Labour	Joseph Sparks	18,438	48.8
Majority			920	2.4
Turnout				80.7

Elections in the 1960s

General election 1964

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Bernard Floud	17,022	49.3
	Conservative	Philip Holland	14,423	41.8
	Liberal	Barwys Niel Martin-Kaye	3,049	8.8
Majority			2,599	7.5
Turnout				77.4

General election 1966

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Bernard Floud	18,541	57.7
	Conservative	Kenneth Baker	13,600	42.3
Majority			4,941	15.4
Turnout				74.0

Acton by-election, 1968

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Kenneth Baker	12,242	48.67	+6.36
	Labour	Walter Hamlet Johnson	8,522	33.88	-23.81
	Liberal	Frank Davis	2,868	11.40	N/A
	National Front	Andrew Fountaine	1,400	5.57	N/A
	Independent	Harold Fox	75	0.30	N/A
	Independent	William Gold	44	0.17	N/A
Turnout			25,151
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General election 1970

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Nigel John Spearing	13,960	48.0
	Conservative	Kenneth Wilfred Baker	13,300	45.7
	Liberal	Dion Scherer	1,583	5.44
	Communist	Maurice Costin	258	0.9
Majority			660	2.3
Turnout				66.1

General election February 1974

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	George Samuel Knatchbull Young	18,492	43.3
	Labour	Nigel John Spearing	17,041	39.9
	Liberal	Mario Reginald Uziell-Hamilton	7,160	16.8
Majority			1,451	3.4
Turnout				75.4

General election October 1974

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	George Samuel Knatchbull Young	17,669	45.2
	Labour	Glen Alexander Barnham	16,861	43.1
	Liberal	Mario Reginald Uziell-Hamilton	4,569	11.7
Majority			808	2.1
Turnout				69.9

General election 1979

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	George Samuel Knatchbull Young	21,056	51.9
	Labour	Glen Alexander Barnham	15,258	37.6
	Liberal	S Rowley	3,549	8.7
	National Front	C Wakley	501	1.2
	Irish National Party	J O'Leary	243	0.6
Majority			5,798	14.3
Turnout				71.4

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "A" (part 1)