From 1974 to 1983 the constituency comprised electoral wards:
Golborne, Holland, Norland, Pembridge, Queen's Gate and St Charles.
From 1983 to 1997 the constituency comprised electoral wards:
Avondale, Campden, Colville, Golborne, Holland, Kelfield, Norland, Pembridge, Queen's Gate and St Charles.
History
First creation
The first incarnation of a Kensington constituency in Westminster was for the February 1974 general election, derived from the fairly safe Labour seat of Kensington North, and the overwhelmingly Conservative Kensington South; this was abolished for the 1997 general election. The seat was mostly replaced by Regent's Park and Kensington North which was, until its 2010 abolition, represented by Labour MPs, specifically, won three times during the Blair Ministry, and partially replaced by Kensington and Chelsea which was held by Malcolm Rifkind until his resignation at the 2015 general election. ;Summary of results The old seat returned Conservative MPs from 1974 up to and including its last general election in 1992. At its sole by-election in 1988 the seat was won by its smallest majority, a highly marginal 3.4% – a by-election which saw a majority turnout and a Labour splinter party candidate, for the Social Democratic Party achieve fourth place attracting 5% of the vote yet standing in the year of the formal amalgamation of the main SDP splinter group with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats who stood as the Social and Liberal Democrats and seven years after the formation of the official SDP-Liberal Alliance.
Second creation
The constituency was recreated by adopting the Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies of the Boundary Commission at the 2010 general election, combining elements of the two constituencies. ;Summary of results The 2015 result was a narrower result than 2010 and gave the seat the 126th most marginal majority of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority. The runner-up party remained the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats' share of the vote fell by 13.9% to 5.6% of votes cast. In the June 2017 election, three recounts occurred, the first two producing extremely close results with the latter producing a Labour majority of only 20+ votes. After the two recounts due to fatigue among the staff the counting was suspended to allow them to "rest and recuperate". The third recount gave Labour a majority of 20, the first time the constituency had become a Labour seat since its creation, and makes it the Labour Party's most vulnerable seat.
Constituency profile
Kensington is mostly residential — housing varies between the expensive apartments with manicured garden squares or terraces of South Kensington, that has some of the most exclusive real estate in the world and, by contrast, North Kensington and Ladbroke Grove have, for the most part, dense social housing, tower blocks in output areas with high rankings in the 2000-compiled Index of Multiple Deprivation. Kensington High Street is an upmarket shopping hub, Kensington Palace is the residence of members of the Royal Family, and Kensington Palace Gardens is the site of many embassies and a few private residences of very affluent homeowners. South Kensington also borders Hyde Park and includes the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert. Earls Court, Brompton, Holland Park and Notting Hill have their own characters. Earls Court is less affluent than its neighbours. While it is undergoing rapid gentrification and includes its own areas for the super-rich, there are still old hotels and bedsits around the site of the former Earls Court Exhibition Centre, which extends into the marginal Hammersmith seat. Notting Hill is an affluent, highly cosmopolitan area which hosts the Notting Hill Carnival, led by the area's African-Caribbean community. It fell on hard times in the twentieth century, being associated with low-rent flats and multiple-occupancy homes, but has since been gentrified.
Members of Parliament
Election results
Elections in the 2010s
Kensington was the last constituency to be declared in the 2017 general election. The result was extremely close in Kensington, which had been considered a safe Conservative seat. After three counts on 8 and 9 June, which appeared to show Labour majorities of between 36 and 50, counting was suspended due to fatigue. The result was announced later on 9 June.
