# Balham and Tooting (UK Parliament constituency)

Balham and Tooting was a constituency in South London, which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created for the 1918 general election and abolished for the 1950 general election.

## Boundaries

The constituency, officially the Balham and Tooting Division of the Parliamentary Borough of Wandsworth, was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918. The 1918 Act had the principal aim of reducing the growing malapportionment due to electorate growth in geographical areas coupled with the subsidiary aim of realigning constituency boundaries so as to largely correspond with units of local government units (as created in 1889 and 1900). The new seat was one of five divisions of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth in the parliamentary County of London.
The seat had previously formed part of the single-member Wandsworth constituency, created in 1885.
The constituency was defined in terms of wards of the metropolitan borough as they existed in 1918: it comprised the entire Tooting ward and the part of the Balham ward which lay to the west and south of the centre of Balham Hill, Balham High Road, Ormeley Road, Cavendish Road and Emmanuel Road. The remainder of the Balham ward was in another of the Wandsworth divisions, Clapham.
The constituency was surrounded by Wandsworth Central to the north-west, Battersea South to the north, Clapham to the north-east, Streatham to the east and south-east, Mitcham to the south and Wimbledon to the west.
In the redistribution which took effect with the 1950 United Kingdom general election the Tooting ward and part of Balham ward were included in the redrawn Wandsworth Central seat. The rest of Balham ward remained in the Clapham constituency.

## Members of Parliament

| Election | Election | Member | Party |
| | 1918 | John Denison-Pender | Unionist |
| | 1922 | Alfred Butt | Unionist |
| | 1936 b-e | George Doland | Conservative |
| | 1945 | Richard Adams | Labour |
| 1950 | 1950 | constituency abolished | constituency abolished |

## Election results
### Elections in the 1910s

General election 1918: Balham and Tooting :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| C | Unionist | John Denison-Pender | 12,405 | 59.7 | |
| | Labour | Frank Smith | 3,586 | 17.2 | |
| | Independent Democrat | Alfred James Hurley | 1,805 | 8.7 | |
| | Liberal | Maxwell Anderson | 1,542 | 7.4 | |
| | Ind. Conservative | William Hunt | 1,457 | 7.0 | |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 8,819 | 42.5 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 20,795 | 51.7 | |
| | Unionist win (new seat) | Unionist win (new seat) | Unionist win (new seat) | Unionist win (new seat) | Unionist win (new seat) |
| C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government. ||||||

### Elections in the 1920s

General election 1922: Balham and Tooting :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Unionist | Alfred Butt | 17,239 | 68.2 | +8.5 |
| | Liberal | Joseph William Molden | 8,044 | 31.8 | +24.4 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 9,195 | 36.4 | −6.1 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 25,283 | 61.1 | +9.4 |
| | Unionist hold | Unionist hold | Swing | −8.0 | |
General election 1923: Balham and Tooting :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Unionist | Alfred Butt | 12,695 | 49.4 | −18.8 |
| | Liberal | George Little | 7,477 | 29.1 | −2.7 |
| | Labour | Edward Archbold | 5,536 | 21.5 | New |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 5,218 | 20.3 | −16.1 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 25,708 | 61.1 | 0.0 |
| | Unionist hold | Unionist hold | Swing | −8.0 | |
General election 1924: Balham and Tooting :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Unionist | Alfred Butt | 20,378 | 67.8 | +18.4 |
| | Labour | Edward Archbold | 9,672 | 32.2 | +10.7 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 10,706 | 35.6 | +15.3 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 30,050 | 70.3 | +9.2 |
| | Unionist hold | Unionist hold | Swing | | |
General election 1929: Balham and Tooting :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Unionist | Alfred Butt | 18,181 | 45.2 | −22.6 |
| | Labour | Charles Wortham Brook | 13,499 | 33.6 | +1.4 |
| | Liberal | William Hadley Summerskill | 8,533 | 21.2 | New |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 4,682 | 11.6 | −24.0 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 40,213 | 70.6 | +0.3 |
| | Unionist hold | Unionist hold | Swing | −12.0 | |

### Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Balham and Tooting :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Conservative | Alfred Butt | 28,592 | 74.5 | +29.3 |
| | Labour | Percy F. Pollard | 9,780 | 25.5 | −8.1 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 18,812 | 49.0 | +37.4 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 38,372 | 67.1 | −3.5 |
| | Conservative hold | Conservative hold | Swing | | |
General election 1935: Balham and Tooting :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Conservative | Alfred Butt | 22,013 | 62.9 | −11.6 |
| | Labour | William Davies Lloyd | 12,960 | 37.1 | +11.6 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 9,053 | 25.9 | −23.1 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 34,973 | 61.8 | −5.3 |
| | Conservative hold | Conservative hold | Swing | | |
1936 Balham and Tooting by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Conservative | George Doland | 14,959 | 53.7 | −9.2 |
| | Labour | W J Miller | 12,889 | 46.3 | +9.2 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 2,070 | 7.4 | −18.5 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 27,848 | 49.2 | −12.6 |
| | Conservative hold | Conservative hold | Swing | | |

### Elections in the 1940s

General election 1945: Balham and Tooting :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Labour | Richard Adams | 01 | 57.6 | +20.5 |
| | Conservative | Walter Stanley Edgson | 14,552 | 42.4 | −20.5 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 5,230 | 15.2 | N/A |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 34,334 | 70.9 | +14.1 |
| | Labour gain from Conservative | Labour gain from Conservative | Swing | | |