County Merseyside Created 1997 | Electorate 61,679 (December 2010) Number of members One | |
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Member of parliament Luciana Berger (Labour Co-op) Created from Liverpool Broadgreen, Liverpool Mossley Hill | ||
Liverpool, Wavertree is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Luciana Berger of the Labour Co-operative Party (which denotes she is a member of the Labour Party and Co-operative Party, one of 27 current Labour MPs, and requires members to contribute practically to a cooperative business).
Contents
Boundaries
1918-1950: The County Borough of Liverpool wards of Allerton, Childwall and Little Woolton, Garston, Much Woolton, Wavertree, and Wavertree West.
1950-1983: The County Borough of Liverpool wards of Old Swan, Wavertree, and Wavertree West.
1997-2010: The City of Liverpool wards of Broadgreen, Childwall, Church, Kensington, Old Swan, and Picton.
2010-present: The City of Liverpool wards of Childwall, Church, Kensington and Fairfield, Old Swan, Picton, and Wavertree.
The constituency is one of five covering the city of Liverpool, and covers the localities in the eastern parts of the city such as Wavertree, Broadgreen, Childwall, Edge Hill, Kensington, Fairfield, part of Mossley Hill and Old Swan.
History
The present Liverpool Wavertree constituency dates from 1997. It contained parts of the former constituencies of Liverpool Broadgreen and Liverpool Mossley Hill. It was held by Jane Kennedy of the Labour Party from 1997 to 2010, the former Broadgreen MP. The Liberal Democrats are the main and realistic challenge to Labour since 1997, as is the case in other Liverpool constituencies - in the 2005 election the Labour lead over the Liberal Democrats was cut from 38 points to 15 points. For the 2010 election Jane Kennedy stood down (retired as an MP) and Luciana Berger was announced as Labour's new candidate, which caused some friction and controversy in the local constituency party, such as concerns that Berger is not locally-rooted (she is originally from North London), and her associations with out-going MP Kennedy.
An earlier Liverpool Wavertree constituency existed until 1983; this seat was predominantly a Conservative seat, occasionally with large majorities. While the Conservatives have fared badly in the new Wavertree constituency (polling under 7% in the 2005 general election), a direct comparison must take into account the differing boundaries since the 1997 recreation, with more inner-city denser housing estates home to constituents on a lower income than the average in the North West. The 2015 result made the seat the 7th safest of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority.
In the 2010 election, the Liberal Democrats targeting of the seat led to high turnout however it was comfortably held by Labour with a 2.1% swing away from the Liberal Democrats. The unexpected turnout led unusually to one polling station running out of ballot papers.
Elections in the 1940s
A general election was planned for 1939/1940 but was postponed because of war. By the end of 1939, the following candidates had been selected;