Cities of London and Westminster

Cities of London and Westminster
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Cities of London and Westminster in Greater London.
County	Greater London
Population	110,000 (2011 census)
Electorate	65,140 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	1950
Member of parliament	Mark Field (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	City of London (1298–1950), Westminster Abbey, Westminster St George's
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	London

Cities of London and Westminster is a constituency returning a single Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons in the United Kingdom Parliament. It is a borough constituency for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer. As with all constituencies, the election is decided using the first past the post system of election. Since its creation at the 1950 general election, the constituency has always elected the candidate nominated by the Conservative Party. It has been represented since 2001 by Mark Field.

Before 1950 the City of London formed a two-member constituency on its own. The Boundary Commission for England began reviewing constituencies in January 1946 using rules defined under the Representation of the People Act 1944, which excluded the City of London from the redistribution procedure; the Commission recommended that the borough of Chelsea and the City of Westminster form a single Parliamentary Borough of Chelsea and Westminster with two divisions.

In February 1948 the Government brought forward a new Representation of the People Bill which removed the right of owners of business premises to a second vote; this would have had the effect of reducing the electorate of the City of London from 12,500 to 4,600. The Bill proposed also to end the City of London as a separate constituency and to merge it with the adjacent boroughs of Finsbury and Shoreditch. During debates on the Bill, the Government amended it to substitute a link between the City of London and the City of Westminster. In introducing the amendment the Home Secretary James Chuter Ede noted that the alterations to the constituencies in Westminster, Chelsea and Kensington had been agreed unanimously at a conference between the Members of Parliament and representatives of the boroughs affected.