Boundary review may see Finchley and Golders Green constituency abolished

The latest recommendations for changing parliamentary seat boundaries are likely to mean the abolition of two key seats of paramount interest to the Jewish community — Islington North, currently held by Jeremy Corbyn, and Margaret Thatcher’s old seat of Finchley and Golders Green, currently held by Conservative Mike Freer.

The changes are being made because some seats have wildly differing numbers of voters and the plans are to make most seats around the same, with between 71,000 and 78,000 electors. And the recommendations will mean that there are 50 fewer MPs in Parliament.

Islington North is due to be replaced by a new seat called Finsbury Park and Stoke Newington, which will take some wards from Diane Abbott’s Hackney North seat — and mean that the new seat will include electors from the strictly Orthodox community.

In north west London, the proposal is that there should be one MP to represent Edgware, Hendon, Mill Hill and Golders Green.

The new seat will extend the existing Hendon constituency — currently held by Conservative Matthew Offord — and take in Brent Cross, Golders Green and Staples Corner.

Finchley and Golders Green will disappear as a separate seat. Golders Green will be attached to Hendon, and Childs Hill and Hampstead Garden Suburb get swallowed by an enlarged Hampstead outline.

East Finchley becomes part of a new constituency including Southgate and Cockfosters which stretches all the way up to the M25, beyond Hadley Wood.
Meanwhile North Finchley and Church End join the existing Chipping Barnet seat currently held by another Tory MP Theresa Villiers, who is former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Labour’s Tulip Siddiq, who has been highly critical of the proposed changes, will see her Hampstead and Kilburn seat scrapped. The Hampstead seat will now include the whole of Hampstead Heath, as well as Hampstead Garden Suburb up to East Finchley.LISTEN to this week’s episode of the Jewish Views Podcast!