Eltham is a collection of middle London suburbs on the hills south and west of Woolwich town centre: Eltham itself and Plumstead are the best known. Eltham's wards are a mixture of small council and ex-council estates and private developments. It is peculiar for a halfway-out London seat in not having changed much demographically; it is still mainly skilled working class and lower middle class, and it is the least ethnically mixed seat in inner London. It has also not changed into a Labour stronghold like Hornsey or Streatham and remains marginal. In the past it was one of the largest constituency Labour Parties in the country, based on strong Co-op and union movements in the area.

Eltham has a bad reputation as one of the most racist areas of London. Stephen Lawrence was murdered on its streets in 1993 and there have been other attacks; Brian Cathcart in his study of the murder said of Eltham then that 'by London's standards it was a place with a distinctly ugly streak.' The seat was highly marginal in 1992 and the incumbent Tory MP Peter Bottomley left it for Worthing. Clive Efford, a taxi driver and Labour councillor for Well Hall ward, gained the seat by a wide margin (over 10,000 votes) in 1997. Since then, Labour has led in all the mid-term elections in Eltham; by 16% in 1998, 5% in 1999 and about 2% in 2000. It seems like a pretty solid bet for a Labour hold.

Parliamentary Statistics pre-Election 2001

Labour majority 10,182 (23.4%)  Conservative target 189
Labour MP Clive Efford
1997 (Turnout 75.2%)
Labour	23,710	54.6%
Conservative	13,528	31.2%
Liberal Democrat	3,701	8.5%
Referendum	1,414	3.3%
Others	1,075	2.4%

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For Eltham 2001 Election result - click here.