This seat is home to one of Labour’s flag carriers from the left of the party; Jeremy Corbyn, who held it in 1997 with a 20,000 majority. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat votes between them only amounted to a third of his vote.
This constituency has some interesting Labour Party history. In 1981 and 1982, all three Labour MPs representing Islington defected to the SDP. In the 1983 general election, the three defectees faced the problem that the three seats were cut to two following a boundary review. This outcome led to one of them, Michael O’Halloran, standing as independent Labour, against the SDP candidate. But Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn won the seat comfortably, and has held it easily since.
About a fifth of the population here is non-white, and just over 40% of the population live in council housing. Gillespie Ward covers the area around Arsenal Football stadium, and has the lowest proportion of council housing in the constituency. A big local issue has been the proposed new Arsenal stadium.