Wirral West (UK Parliament constituency)

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 2010, with 55,077 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.

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.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1983	David Hunt	Conservative
	1997	Stephen Hesford	Labour
	2010	Esther McVey	Conservative
	2015	Margaret Greenwood	Labour

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

See also: Opinion polling in United Kingdom constituencies, 2010–15 § Wirral West

General Election 2015: Wirral West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Margaret Greenwood	18,898	45.1	+8.9
	Conservative	Esther McVey	18,481	44.2	+1.7
	UKIP	Hilary Jones	2,772	6.6	+4.3
	Liberal Democrat	Peter Reisdorf	1,433	3.4	−13.4
	Independent	David James	274	0.7	-0.1
Majority			417	1.0
Turnout			41,858	75.6
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	+3.6

General Election 2010: Wirral West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Esther McVey	16,726	42.5	+0.7
	Labour	Phillip Davies	14,290	36.3	−4.0
	Liberal Democrat	Peter Reisdorf	6,630	16.8	+0.5
	UKIP	Philip Griffiths	899	2.3	+1.1
	Independent	David Kirwan	506	1.3	+1.3
	Common Sense Party	David James	321	0.8	+0.8
Majority			2,436	6.2
Turnout			39,372	71.5	+3.4
	Conservative hold		Swing	+2.4

Note: although Labour held the seat in the 2005-10 Parliament, boundary changes made Wirral West notionally Conservative, thus this was technically a hold.

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Wirral West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Stephen Hesford	17,543	42.5	−4.7
	Conservative	Esther McVey	16,446	39.9	+2.7
	Liberal Democrat	Jeffrey John Clarke	6,652	16.1	+0.5
	UKIP	John Hamilton Moore	429	1.0	N/A
	Alternative Party	Roger Standring Taylor	163	0.4	N/A
Majority			1,097	2.7
Turnout			41,233	67.5	+2.5
	Labour hold		Swing	−3.7

General Election 2001: Wirral West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Stephen Hesford	19,105	47.2	+2.3
	Conservative	Chris James Joseph Lynch	15,070	37.2	−1.8
	Liberal Democrat	Simon Andrew Holbrook	6,300	15.6	+2.9
Majority			4,035	10.0
Turnout			40,475	65.0	−12.2
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Wirral West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Stephen Hesford	21,035	44.9	+13.9
	Conservative	David Hunt	18,297	39.0	−13.7
	Liberal Democrat	John Thornton	5,945	12.7	−1.9
	Referendum	Derek Wharton	1,613	3.4	N/A
Majority			2,738	5.8	13.78
Turnout			46,890	77.2	−4.6
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	+13.8

General Election 1992: Wirral West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Hunt	26,852	52.7	+0.8
	Labour	Helen Stephenson	15,788	31.0	+4.7
	Liberal Democrat	John L. Thornton	7,420	14.6	−5.6
	Green	Garnette M. Bowler	700	1.4	−0.3
	Natural Law	Nigel J. Broome	188	0.4	N/A
Majority			11,064	21.7	−4.0
Turnout			50,948	81.6	+3.6
	Conservative hold		Swing	−2.0

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: Wirral West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Hunt	25,736	51.9	−3.9
	Labour	Alexander Hugh Dunn	13,013	26.3	+4.5
	Liberal	Allan John Brame	10,015	20.2	−2.2
	Green	David Burton	806	1.6	N/A
Majority			12,723	25.6
Turnout			63,597	77.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1983: Wirral West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Hunt	25,276	55.8	N/A
	Liberal	S.J. Mulholland	10,125	22.4	N/A
	Labour	J.F. McCabe	9,855	21.8	N/A
Majority			15,151	33.4	N/A
Turnout			61,646	73.4	N/A
	Conservative win (new seat)

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies on Merseyside