This has been a Labour seat since 1945. In 1997 it was the party's safest in London. It is well known for its low turn-outs - 55.3% in 1997, 46.8% four years later. Labour used to dominate at local level too but in 2002, Southwark council went for the first time to No Overall Control with the Liberal Democrats winning the largest number of seats. Camberwell and Peckham is the middle of Southwark's three Parliamentary constituencies. For the most part it is an area of widespread social and economic deprivation ' it includes site of the now demolished Peckham estate where Damilola Taylor lost his life. It's an ethnically diverse area with some of the largest black communities in the country. Unemployment at 12% is almost three times the national average and the ninth highest for both registered out of work and long-term unemployed. The constituency boasts the highest number of those who are employed travelling to work by bus or coach. Seventy-five per cent of householders are flat dwellers, with 55% renting from the council. Camberwell has the fifth highest single person occupancy rate and the ninth highest number of lone parent households with dependent children. Peckham used to be famed as the home of "Only Fools and Horses" but there are parts which are now very much on the way up. Labour's Harriet Harman has represented the seat, and its predecessor Peckham, since a 1982 by-election. She is currently Solicitor-General.
