Barking
Labour hold

This is the older half of the East End Thames-side London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, and in many ways remains the true beating heart of the Cockney east end, with its working class terraces, scrap metal merchants, and the headquarters of Coral bookmakers. Less than one tenth of the population is made up of the descendants of non-white immigrants of relatively recent date. A minority is middle class by the definition of non-manual work, which is very rare in London now - even East Ham and Bethnal Green and Bow have less than 50pc in manual occupations. Apart from one Lib Dem councillor in Eastbury ward, Labour monopolised the London Borough council representation in Barking in May 1998, and polled more than twice as many votes as the next party in the Euro elections the next year. This is one of the safest Labour seats in London, held by Margaret Hodge.

Margaret Hodge, an MP since 1994 and a junior Education and Employment minister since 1998, was a modishly leftwing Islington Council leader for ten years , before emerging as a £50,000 consultant with Price Waterhouse and a Blairite moderniser. Small and animated, with a doll-like appearance belying her 56 years, she is the daughter of the late German Jewish steel trader Hans Alfried Oppenheimer, was educated at Bromley High School for Girls, Oxford High School and the LSE, and worked as a market researcher until become a fulltime politician. To Quentin Letts (late of the Daily Telegraph) she ‘personifies privileged north London Labour'; to others, her bossy abrasiveness earns her the nickname ‘Enver', after the late Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha (pronounced ‘Hodga').

Area Percent GB Percent Index GB=100   Thriving Wealthy Achievers, Suburban Areas 0.20% 14.99% 1.32 Affluent Greys, Rural Communities 0.00% 2.13% 0.00 Prosperous Pensioners, Retirement Areas 0.00% 2.49% 0.00 Expanding Affluent Executives, Family Areas 0.00% 4.43% 0.00 Well-Off Workers, Family Areas 0.00% 7.27% 0.00 Rising Affluent Urbanites, Town & City Areas 1.74% 2.56% 67.84 Prosperous Professionals, Metropolitan Areas 0.00% 2.04% 0.00 Better-Off Executives, Inner City Areas 0.07% 3.94% 1.81 Settling Comfortable Middle Agers, Mature Home Owning Areas 3.50% 13.04% 26.81 Skilled Workers, Home Owning Areas 13.03% 12.70% 102.59 Aspiring New Home Owners, Mature Communities 2.13% 8.14% 26.12 White Collar Workers, Better-Off Multi Ethnic Areas 7.60% 4.02% 188.94 Striving Older People, Less Prosperous Areas 7.62% 3.19% 239.21 Council Estate Residents, Better-Off Homes 45.30% 11.31% 400.46 Council Estate Residents, High Unemployment 6.15% 3.06% 200.92 Council Estate Residents, Greatest Hardship 8.50% 2.52% 337.61 People in Multi-Ethnic, Low-Income Areas 4.17% 2.10% 198.44 Unclassified Unclassified 0.00% 0.06% 0.00

Area Percent GB Percent Index GB=100   £0-5K 11.22% 9.41% 119.24 £5-10K 18.03% 16.63% 108.43 £10-15K 17.21% 16.58% 103.83 £15-20K 13.68% 13.58% 100.73 £20-25K 10.19% 10.39% 98.08 £25-30K 7.43% 7.77% 95.57 £30-35K 5.39% 5.79% 93.11 £35-40K 3.93% 4.33% 90.71 £40-45K 2.88% 3.27% 88.35 £45-50K 2.14% 2.48% 86.07 £50-55K 1.60% 1.90% 83.87 £55-60K 1.21% 1.47% 81.75 £60-65K 0.92% 1.15% 79.73 £65-70K 0.71% 0.91% 77.80 £70-75K 0.55% 0.72% 75.96 £75-80K 0.43% 0.57% 74.20 £80-85K 0.34% 0.46% 72.53 £85-90K 0.27% 0.37% 70.95 £90-95K 0.21% 0.31% 69.43 £95-100K 0.17% 0.25% 67.99 £100K + 0.81% 1.34% 60.13