County Merseyside Created 1983 Member of parliament Louise Ellman | Electorate 73,406 (December 2010) European Parliament constituency North West England Number of members 1 | |
 | ||
Created from Liverpool Toxteth,
Liverpool Scotland Exchange Replaced by Liverpool Toxteth, Liverpool Scotland Exchange | ||
Liverpool Riverside is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by Louise Ellman of the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party.
Contents
Boundaries
1983-1997: The City of Liverpool wards of Abercromby, Arundel, Dingle, Everton, Granby, and Vauxhall.
1997-2010: The City of Liverpool wards of Abercromby, Aigburth, Arundel, Dingle, Everton, Granby, Smithdown, and Vauxhall.
2010-present: The City of Liverpool wards of Central, Greenbank, Kirkdale, Mossley Hill, Princes Park, Riverside, and St Michael's.
The constituency is one of five covering the city of Liverpool. It covers the central area of the city, including some of the famous sights of the city such as the Royal Liver Building and Albert Dock, as well as the localities of Aigburth, Canning, Chinatown, Dingle, Kirkdale, Part of Mossley Hill, St Michael's Hamlet, Toxteth and Vauxhall. It also contains both the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University.
History
The constituency was created in 1983 merging most of the former Liverpool Scotland Exchange and Liverpool Toxteth constituencies. In their provisional recommendations, the Boundary Commission originally suggested calling the constituency Liverpool Abercromby. The name was changed during the local enquiry process, during which an alternate name of Liverpool Cathedrals was also proposed.
It has always been held by the Labour Party; from 1983 until 1997 by Robert Parry (formerly MP for one of the predecessor seats from 1974), and since then by Louise Ellman. It is a safe seat covering a deprived urban area. In both the 2001 and 2005 general elections it had the lowest turnout of all constituencies in the United Kingdom.
In the 2005 general election, there was a considerable swing (+8.1%) to the Liberal Democrats, however Labour were still comfortably ahead. Also in 2005, Liverpool Riverside was one of the few seats where the Green Party retained its deposit, scoring just over 5% of the vote.
Elections in the 2000s
The turnout compared to the 2001 election had risen by 7.4% to 41.5% (an above average increase). However, this was still the lowest throughout the United Kingdom which averaged 61.3% with a 1.2% increase.
In the 2001 election it had a turnout of 34.1% which was the lowest of the United Kingdom. The average turnout in that year was 59.2%.