County Merseyside Major settlements Southport Number of members One | Electorate 67,803 (December 2010) Created 1885 | |
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Member of parliament John Pugh (Liberal Democrat) | ||
Southport is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2001 by John Pugh, a Liberal Democrat.
Contents
Boundaries
1885-1918: The Municipal Borough of Southport, the Sessional Division of Southport, and the civil parishes of Blundell, Great and Little Crosby, Ince, and Thornton.
1918-1983: The County Borough of Southport.
1983-present: The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton wards of Ainsdale, Birkdale, Cambridge, Duke's, Kew, Meols, and Norwood.
The constituency covers the whole town of Southport and the localities of Ainsdale, Birkdale, Blowick, Churchtown, Crossens, Highpark, Hillside, Kew, Marshside, Meols Cop, and Woodvale. It is bordered to the north by South Ribble, to the east by West Lancashire, and to the south by Sefton Central.
History
In the 19th century a notable representative was George Nathaniel Curzon, future Viceroy of India.
In the 20th century, outside politics, Edward Marshall-Hall was a notable trial barrister (KC) and Sir John Fowler Leece Brunner was the son of the leading industrialist Sir John Tomlinson Brunner.
As a frontbencher, long-serving representative Robert Hudson was recognised at the time of World War II as a competent Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries in charge of that department, and was made, to give him a peerage, a viscount.
Former Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott ran for the seat in 1966 and came in second place in a three-party battle, which was an early general election fight for the official at the National Union of Seamen brought up in South Yorkshire, for a seat in Lancashire at the time, now only its traditional county.
The constituency has been a Liberal - Conservative seat throughout its history, and marginal for much of this, enabling it to change hands 10 times between the parties since it was created in 1885.
During the nadir of the Liberal Party (from the 1930s to the 1960s) the constituency became a safe Conservative seat, with absolute majorities from 1931 until 1970 inclusive.
With the rise again of the Liberal Party in the early 1970s, election results proved to be close contests. The constituency changed hands in the 1987 general election, when it was taken by Ronnie Fearn of the Liberal Party for the SDP-Liberal Alliance (shortly before the two parties merged to form the Liberal Democrats).
Fearn lost the seat to the Conservatives' Matthew Banks at the 1992 election, only to regain it at the 1997 election. The Liberal Democrats have held the seat since then, with John Pugh representing the constituency since Fearn stood down in 2001.
Constituency profile
Workless claimants (registered jobseekers) were in November 2012 close to the national average of 3.8%, at 4.0% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.