County Merseyside Replaced by Wirral Electorate 55,077 (December 2010) Major settlements Hoylake, West Kirby | Number of members 1 Created from Wirral European Parliament constituency North West England | |
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Member of parliament Margaret Greenwood (Labour) | ||
Wirral West is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. In 2015, with 56,085 people eligible to vote, Wirral West had the smallest electorate of any constituency in England. The current MP is Margaret Greenwood of the Labour Party.
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History
The present Wirral West constituency was formed in 1983, from the northern part of the former Wirral constituency. Its predecessor had traditionally been held by the Conservative Party.
From 1945 until 1976, the MP was Selwyn Lloyd, who served as Foreign Secretary under Anthony Eden and Chancellor of the Exchequer under Harold Macmillan, later becoming Speaker of the Commons in 1971 before being raised to the peerage in 1976. The ensuing by-election was won by David Hunt, who became the first MP for the new seat of Wirral West in 1983. Hunt was a member of John Major's cabinet, serving twice as Secretary of State for Wales and also as Secretary of State for Employment.
Hunt held the seat until 1997, when he lost to Stephen Hesford of the Labour Party. Labour held on narrowly in 2005, despite a challenge from former TV presenter Esther McVey, standing for the Conservatives.
Stephen Hesford announced on the 22 January 2010 that he would be stepping down at the next general election for family reasons. Boundary changes in 2010 meant that the his majority would have been reversed and the Conservatives would have won the seat at the previous election by 569 votes. In the 2010 general election Esther McVey took the seat for the Conservative Party with a swing of 2.3% from Labour.
Wirral West has been described as a bellwether, with results in the constituency mirroring the national result at every election since its formation until 2015. However, in the 2015 election Wirral West was gained by Labour, despite the Conservatives winning the election across the UK. Wirral West, like nearby City of Chester, was one of the few Conservative-held marginals outside London to be taken by Labour.
Boundaries
1983-2010: The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral wards of Hoylake, Prenton, Royden, Thurstaston, and Upton.
2010-present: The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral wards of Greasby, Frankby and Irby, Hoylake and Meols, Pensby and Thingwall, Upton, and West Kirby and Thurstaston.
The constituency is one of four covering the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. It contains the towns of Hoylake and West Kirby, as well as areas such as Greasby, Thingwall, Irby, Meols, Upton and Woodchurch.
In the 2005 Boundary Commission report, Wirral West lost part of the Prenton ward to the Birkenhead constituency, and gained part of Barnston from Wirral South.