Following their review of parliamentary representation in
Merseyside, the
Boundary Commission created a modified West Derby constituency, which was fought at the
2010 general election. The commission's initial proposal to create a cross-border "Croxteth and Kirkby" constituency (which would have contained
electoral wards from
Knowsley borough, as well as from Liverpool) was dropped on its public consultation.
The Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley wards of: Page Moss; Swanside.
The City of Liverpool wards of: Knotty Ash; Old Swan; Tuebrook and Stoneycroft; West Derby; Yew Tree.[2]
The constituency will be subject to significant change, with the addition of the two Knowsley Borough wards from the constituency of
Knowsley and the Liverpool City ward of
Old Swan from
Liverpool Wavertree. These will be partly offset by the transfer of the Croxteth and Norris Green wards to
Liverpool Walton.
Liverpool was subject to a comprehensive local government boundary review which came into effect in May 2023.[3][4] Accordingly, the proposed boundaries no longer coincide with ward boundaries and the constituency will now comprise the following from the 2024 general election:
The Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley wards of: Page Moss; Swanside.
The City of Liverpool wards or part wards of: Anfield (small part); Broadgreen; Kensington & Fairfield (small part); Knotty Ash & Dovecot Park; Old Swan East; Old Swan West; Sandfield Park; Stoneycroft; Tuebrook Breckside Park (majority); Tuebrook Larkhill (majority); West Derby Deysbrook; West Derby Leyfield; West Derby Muirhead (most); Yew Tree.[5]
History
The seat was created in the
Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 and can be considered a
safe seat from 1964 to the present day for the
Labour Party, having retained the seat at every general election since then. However, in the early-1980s, it was briefly held by the
SDP as a result of sitting Labour MP
Eric Ogden being among many defectors.[n 3] Labour regained the seat at the
1983 general election, where
Bob Wareing won the seat back for Labour.
Before 1964, it was held by the
Conservative Party, although their share of the vote has declined considerably; so much so that at four recent general elections, they have finished in fourth place; however they managed to place in third at the
2015 general election and second place in
2017 and
2019.
At the general elections of
1997 and
2001, the Liverpool West Derby seat was the only constituency in
England in which a minor party finished in second place, the
Liberal Party who had[n 4] all three local councillors for one
electoral ward in the area.[6] At the
2005 general election, however, the Liberals were pushed into third place by the
Liberal Democrats and fell to fourth place in
2015, with
UKIP finishing in second place.
Sir F E Smith
Sir Frederick Edwin Smith, then
Solicitor-General in the
David Lloyd George Coalition Government, was returned for Liverpool West Derby at the 1918 general election; when constituency reorganisation abolished his former neighbouring Walton seat. He sat for only two months, being promoted
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain and raised to the peerage as Lord Birkenhead in February 1919. He was the first of two MPs for this seat to achieve the highest legal office.
David Maxwell Fyfe
Maxwell Fyfe, KC, MP from 1935 to 1954 (including
World War II) became the highest
judge in the country, the Lord Chancellor, having been
the Attorney General and Solicitor General for England and Wales. He helped to co-write the
European Convention on Human Rights and was one of the key prosecutors at the
Nuremberg Trials jointly with the (Labour-member) prosecutor Sir
Hartley Shawcross. At this task was a "capable lawyer, efficient administrator and concerned housemaster".[7] There were misgivings in some quarters as to how Fyfe would perform,
cross-examination not being regarded as one of his strengths. However his cross-examination of
Hermann Göring is one of the most noted cross-examinations in history.[8] "Faced with sustained and methodical competence rather than brilliance, Goering...[n 5] crumbled".[9]
Paul Parr was also the Liberal Democrat candidate at both the 2010 and 2015 general elections, when he was known as Paul Twigger.[17]Graham Hughes ran on an anti-
Brexit platform as an independent in 2017, and subsequently joined the Liberal Democrats.[19]
^See
Labour Party (UK), who at the time called for withdrawal from the
EEC (the Common Market) and removal of nuclear weapons during the
Cold War. These considerable defections caused Labour to change its policies.
^Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1916
^‘LIAS, William John’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014
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