Liverpool Wavertree (UK Parliament constituency)

Liverpool, Wavertree
Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Liverpool, Wavertree in Merseyside.
Location of Merseyside within England.
County	Merseyside
Electorate	61,679 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	1997 (1997)
Member of Parliament	Luciana Berger (Labour)
Number of members	One
Created from	Liverpool Broadgreen, Liverpool Mossley Hill
1918 (1918)–1983 (1983)
Number of members	One
Type of constituency	Borough constituency
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	North West England

Liverpool, Wavertree is a borough 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.

Boundaries

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. The electoral wards used in this current version of Wavertree are:

• Childwall, Church, Kensington and Fairfield, Old Swan, Picton, and Wavertree

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 the former Broadgreen MP Jane Kennedy of the Labour Party from 1997 to 2010. The Liberal Democrats are the main challengers to Labour, as is the case in other Liverpool constituencies, though in the 2005 election the Labour lead over the Liberal Democrats was cut from 38 points to 15 points. Jane Kennedy stood down as 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-based (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 a safe Conservative seat. While the Conservatives have fared badly in the new Wavertree constituency (polling under 7% in the 2005 general election), it is perhaps not a fair comparison, as the new constituency covers a different area, with more inner-city areas.

In the 2010 election, the Liberal Democrats targeted the seat however it was comfortably held by Labour with a 2.1% swing away from the Liberal Democrats. The turnout proved unexpectedly large and led to one polling station running out of ballot papers.. This seat also produced the BNP's worst result for a candidate standing in the 2010 election, their candidate polling just 0.4% of the vote.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1918-1983

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Nathan Raw	Coalition Conservative
	1922	Sir Harold Smith	Conservative
	1923	Hugh Reynolds Rathbone	Liberal
	1924	John Abraham Tinne	Conservative
	1931 by-election	Ronald Nall-Cain	Conservative
	1935 by-election	Joseph Jackson Cleary	Labour
	1935	Peter Stapleton Shaw	Conservative
	1945	Victor Raikes	Conservative
	1950	John Tilney	Conservative
	Feb 1974	Anthony Steen	Conservative
1983		Constituency abolished

MPs 1997-present

Election		Member	Party
	1997	Jane Kennedy	Labour
	2010	Luciana Berger	Labour

Elections

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1929: Liverpool Wavertree
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Tinne	16,880	40.0	−7.4
	Labour	S. L. Treleaven	13,585	32.2	−2.8
	Liberal	Hugh Reynolds Rathbone	11,723	27.8	+10.2
Majority			3,295	7.8	−4.6
Turnout			42,188	78.1	−2.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	−2.3

Elections in the 1930s

Liverpool Wavertree by-election, 23 June 1931
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ronald Nall-Cain	18,687	65.0	+25.0
	Labour	S. L. Treleaven	10,042	35.0	+2.8
Majority			8,645	30.0	+22.2
Turnout			28,729	51.7	−26.4
	Conservative hold		Swing	11.2

General Election October 1931: Liverpool Wavertree
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ronald Nall-Cain	33,476	77.9	+12.9
	Labour	C. G. Clark	9,504	22.1	−12.9
Majority			23,972	55.8	+25.8
Turnout			42,980	75.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	+12.9

Liverpool Wavertree by-election, 6 February 1935
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph Jackson Cleary	15,611	35.3	+13.2
	Conservative	James Platt	13,711	31.2	−46.7
	Independent Conservative	Randolph Churchill	10,575	23.9	N/A
	Liberal	A.Morris	4,208	9.5	N/A
Majority			1,840	4.1
Turnout			44,165	72.3	−2.9
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	−30.0

General Election November 1935: Liverpool Wavertree
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Peter Shaw	26,915	58.5	+27.3
	Labour	Joseph Jackson Cleary	19,068	41.5	+6.1
Majority			7,847	17.0
Turnout			45,983	73.2	+0.9
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+10.6

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: Liverpool Wavertree
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Victor Raikes	25,470	48.2	−10.3
	Labour	D. M. Van Abbé	20,249	38.4	−3.1
	Liberal	L. H. Storey	7,063	13.4	N/A
Majority			5,221	9.8	−7.2
Turnout				73.1	−0.1
	Conservative hold		Swing	−3.6

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Liverpool Wavertree
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Jane Kennedy	29,592	64.4
	Liberal Democrat	Richard Kemp	9,891	21.5
	Conservative	Kit Malthouse	4,944	10.8
	Referendum Party	Peter Worthington	576	1.3
	Liberal	Keith McCullough	391	0.9
	ProLife Alliance	Racheal Kingsley	346	0.8
	Workers Revolutionary	Carole Corkhill	178	0.4
Majority			19,701	42.9
Turnout			45,918	62.7
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2001: Liverpool Wavertree
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Jane Kennedy	20,155	62.7	−1.7
	Liberal Democrat	Christopher Newby	7,836	24.4	+2.9
	Conservative	Geoffrey Allen	3,091	9.6	−1.2
	Socialist Labour	Michael Lane	359	1.1	N/A
	Socialist Alliance	Mark O'Brien	349	1.1	N/A
	UKIP	Neil Miney	348	1.1	N/A
Majority			12,319	38.3	−4.6
Turnout			32,138	44.3	−18.4
	Labour hold		Swing	−2.3

General Election 2005: Liverpool Wavertree
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Jane Kennedy	18,441	52.4	-10.3
	Liberal Democrat	Colin Eldridge	13,268	37.7	+13.3
	Conservative	Jason Steen	2,331	6.6	-3.0
	UKIP	Mark Bill	660	1.9	+0.8
	Socialist Labour	Gary Theys	244	0.7	-0.4
	Democratic Socialist Alliance	Paul Filby	227	0.6	-0.5
Majority			5,173	14.7	−23.9
Turnout			35,171	50.8	+6.5
	Labour hold		Swing	-11.8

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2010: Liverpool Wavertree
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Luciana Berger	20,132	53.1	+0.7
	Liberal Democrat	Colin Eldridge	12,965	34.2	-3.5
	Conservative	Andrew Garnett	2,830	7.5	+1.0
	UKIP	Neil Miney	890	2.3	+0.4
	Green	Rebecca Lawson	598	1.6	N/A
	Socialist Labour	Kim Singleton	200	0.5	-0.2
	BNP	Steven McEllenborough	150	0.4	N/A
Majority			7,167	18.9
Turnout			37,914	60.6	12.8
	Labour hold		Swing	+2.1%

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies on Merseyside