Putney (UK Parliament constituency)

Putney
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Putney in Greater London.
County	Greater London
Electorate	62,153 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	1918
Member of parliament	Justine Greening (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	Wandsworth (abolished, divided into four)
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	London

Putney is a constituency created in 1918 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Justine Greening of the Conservative Party, who has served as Secretary of State for Education since 14 July 2016.

The Putney constituency is usually among the earliest to return a result on many general election nights.

1918-1950: The Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth wards of Putney and Southfields.

1950-1974: As above plus Fairfield ward.

1983-2010: The London Borough of Wandsworth wards of East Putney, Parkside, Roehampton, Southfields, Thamesfield, West Hill, and West Putney.

2010–present: As above less Parkside ward.

When created in 1918 the constituency was carved out of the west of the abolished seat Wandsworth. The rest of the latter formed Wandsworth Central, Balham and Tooting and Streatham. As across the country, the largely neglected four-or-five-word anachronism The Putney Divions of Wandsworth was officially abolished in 1983 on boundary alterations and replaced by the more commonplace shorthand, Putney.

The seat was Conservative until 1964, eschewing the Liberal Party in 1918 and the Labour marginal wins in the 1920s and landslide victory in 1945 and narrower win in 1950. The fairly narrow Heath ministry win of 1970 failed to tip the seat back to the Conservative Party, seeing instead 14 years of unbroken Labour party representation, by Hugh Jenkins.