The richest cluster of neighborhoods in Europe has just for the first time in its history voted in an MP from the center-left Labour Party. The last, now-rejected count found Labour just 35 votes ahead, a first for an area whose electoral boundaries have shifted but never yet returned anyone but a Conservative to Parliament.
It may be understandably hard for an American reader to understand how seismic this shift is. The U.K.’s Labour Party, which first rose to prominence as an explicitly socialist party in the 1920s, has never had much of a foothold with the old guard that Kensington is associated with. It’s historically been to the left of U.S. Democrats, a position it has returned to under current leader Jeremy Corbyn, who's stood on a platform of nationalizing railways and postal services and abolishing university fees. This isn’t like citizens of the Upper East Side or Bel Air cheerleading for Hillary. A better example: Imagine the affluent Dallas enclave of Highland Park turning out big for Bernie Sanders. It’s like raising the red flag over Downton Abbey. [...]
That’s because, despite its wealth, Kensington is one of the most drastically unequal areas in all of Britain. In the south of the district lies some of the world’s most eye-wateringly precious real estate, including the world’s most expensive apartment, valued at £75 million, as well as Princess Diana’s former home at Kensington Palace. Behind main drags lined with boutiques and department stores lie streets of lavish look-but-don’t-touch Italianate townhouses, places where security cameras whirr behind strategically placed ornamental orange trees.
How could such an area opt for a Labour MP? It’s highly unlikely that this is a case of radical chic, with mansion owners dabbling in electoral socialism as a way of spicing up lives jaded by abundance. One factor may be that the area’s Conservative MP voted to leave the EU, while her constituents overwhelmingly voted to Remain. (These are globe-trotting, affluent people with lots of business ties to European countries.) There’s another, more striking factor that’s likely in play, however—it’s possible these wealthier residents weren’t even there.
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