The name Dagenham has become synonomous with Ford, whose major British manufacturing plant has been based here since the 1930s. Indeed it was just after the establishment of Britain’s largest-ever council estate here in the 1920s that Henry Ford sited the country’s first production line in the area.
The seat's history is almost as synonomous with Labour. It was home to John Parker, who in the 1980s had represented the seat for 50 years and sat as the Father of the House.
His replacement proved to have a less longstanding relationship with the House of Commons. Bryan Gould, a Euro-sceptic in an age of Euro-enthusiasm, having been defeated by John Smith for the leadership of the party, resigned his seat in 1994 and returned to his native New Zealand.
Besides Ford, there are several other large companies based in the seat - Rhone Poulence is the biggest of a number of chemical and pharmaceutical firms, and the GPT telephone cables business has its headquarters here.