Richmond Park is a parliamentary constituency in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. Sarah Olney of the Liberal Democrats won the seat at a by-election in 2016 after Zac Goldsmith of the Conservative Party stood down in protest over expansion of Heathrow Airport. Goldsmith stood as an independent at the by-election, but the Conservative nomination was restored to him for the 2017 general election, at which he regained the seat with a slim majority. Olney won the seat from Goldsmith a second time at the 2019 general election. History The seat was created in 1997 from Richmond and Barnes, held by Jeremy Hanley of the Conservative Party; and a northern section of Kingston upon Thames, held by his party colleague, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont. Hanley was selected as the Conservative candidate at the first election for the seat, but lost to Jenny Tonge of the Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrats retained the seat until 2010, when it was won by the Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith by over 4,000 votes. Goldsmith, who blended fiscal conservatism with environmental activism, easily secured re-election in 2015, with a majority of over 23,000. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats haemorrhaged support and fell to their lowest level since 1970 (when the Richmond, Surrey constituency was fought, albeit on different boundaries to Richmond Park). In October 2016, Goldsmith announced his resignation as an MP in protest against the Conservative government's decision to allow a third runway to be built at Heathrow Airport. Goldsmith stood as an independent in the by-election held on 1 December; he was defeated by Sarah Olney, a Liberal Democrat, despite the Conservatives fielding no candidate. It was the first by-election in the constituency since its creation in 1997. In April 2017, Goldsmith won the Conservative nomination for the seat and stood in the general election on 8 June, at which Olney sought re-election. Despite Olney gaining the largest increase in vote share between general elections in the country, and Goldsmith one of the largest falls, he regained the seat for the Conservatives with a majority of just 45 votes. Goldsmith's six months out was the shortest time a defeated MP had remained so before regaining the same seat. Olney retook the seat in the 2019 general election, with a majority of nearly 8,000. Constituency profile The constituency is an affluent area of south west London, with salaries and proportion