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  1. Politics
11 July 2013

Finsbury II

By Stephen Brasher

By 1885, the Finsbury seat stretched from the City of London to Highgate. It was split into seven constituencies by the Redistribution of Seats Act. W M Torrens, its Liberal MP for 20 years, was told by the newly formed and (as he put it) “pretentiously named” Liberal Association that it wanted a candidate “of more advanced views”. He opposed the creation of a London-wide authority (proposing instead “three circles of government”) and withdrew from politics.

After the 1886 election and the defection of Joseph Chamberlain’s brother Richard, the Tories had a majority in the area. Finsbury seats later elected the first Asian MP, Dadabhai Naoroji (Finsbury Central, 1892-95), and two Lib-Lab MPs, James Rowlands (Finsbury East, 1886-95) and William Steadman (Finsbury Central, 1906-10).

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