Created in 1974 from the former seats of Wembley North and Wembley South, Brent North was a Conservative seat until 1997, held by Lancastrian former headmaster Rhodes Boyson with initially two fairly small 14% margins[n 3] before the Conservative-dominated period beginning in 1979 which gave Boyson larger majorities until Labour won the seat in 1997. At the general elections of 1997 and 2001, Brent North produced the highest swing to Labour nationally.[4] The winning candidate in 1997 was Glasgow-born Barry Gardiner, the youngest mayor of Cambridge in its history and former academic, who has held the seat ever since. The Liberal Democrats and their two predecessor parties (Liberal and SDP) amassed their largest share of the vote in 1974. Labour's percentage majority almost halved at the 2005 general election from 30.1% to 15.8% and fell slightly to 15.4% in 2010, faced with a new Conservative challenger, Harshadbhai Patel.[5] The Labour Party vote increased in both the 2015 and 2017 general elections and then dramatically decreased to a 15.8% margin in 2019.
1974–1983: The London Borough of Brent wards of Barnhill, Fryent, Kenton, Kingsbury, Preston, Queensbury, Roe Green, St Andrew's, Sudbury, Sudbury Court, and Tokyngton.
1983–1997: The London Borough of Brent wards of Barnhill, Fryent, Kenton, Kingsbury, Preston, Queensbury, Roe Green, St Andrew's, Sudbury, and Sudbury Court.
1997–2010: The London Borough of Brent wards of Barnhill, Fryent, Kenton, Kingsbury, Preston, Queensbury, Roe Green, Sudbury, and Sudbury Court.
2010–2024: The London Borough of Brent wards of Alperton, Barnhill, Fryent, Kenton, Northwick Park, Preston, Queensbury, Sudbury, and Wembley Central.
Most of the remaining wards in the London Borough of Brent were in the Brent Central constituency, with the exception of the wards of Brondesbury Park, Kilburn and Queens Park, which formed part of the Hampstead and Kilburn seat.
