Merseyside West (European Parliament constituency)

Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in England, Scotland and Wales. The European Parliament constituencies used under that system were smaller than the later regional constituencies and only had one Member of the European Parliament each.

Merseyside West
European Parliament constituency
Member stateUnited Kingdom
Created1984
Dissolved1999
MEPs1
Sources

From 1984 to 1999, the constituency of Merseyside West was one of them, following on from the previous "Liverpool" constituency which existed on different boundaries from 1979 to 1984.

When it was created in England in 1984, it consisted of the Westminster Parliament constituencies of Bootle, Crosby, Liverpool Broadgreen, Liverpool Mossley Hill, Liverpool Riverside, Liverpool Walton, Liverpool West Derby, Southport,[1] and remained broadly the same, despite the internal re-arrangement of some of these constituencies (Wavertree replacing Broadgreen and Mossley Hill, and a boundary shift for some of the others).

Ken Stewart, a left-wing and anti-Europe Labour councillor, won the seat for Labour in 1984 from the Liverpool constituency's incumbent Gloria Hooper, later Baroness Hooper. He retained it in 1989 and 1994 with increased majorities. His death in 1996 triggered a by-election, one of a number of crucial by-elections resulting in comfortable Labour victories in the closing months of John Major's Conservative government. Labour's candidate was Richard Corbett, pro-Europe (and later the Leader of the Labour MEPs, the EPLP), who held the seat until it was abolished with the introduction of the regional constituency proportional representation system in 1999. Corbett won the selection to be the Labour candidate in a ballot of all party members in the constituency, winning out against David Watts, later MP for St Helens, Margaret Wall (later Baroness Wall of New Barnet), David Martin, leader of Sefton Council and a number of other local councillors from Liverpool and Bootle.

Under the regional constituency system, Merseyside West became part of North West England.

MEPs

ElectedMemberParty
1984 Kenneth Stewart Labour
1996 by-election Richard Corbett Labour
1999 Constituency abolished: see North West England

Election results

European Parliament election, 1984: Merseyside West[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Kenneth Stewart 65,915 42.3
Conservative Miss G. D. Hooper 52,718 33.8
Liberal Paul R. Clark 37,303 23.9
Majority 13,197 8.5
Turnout 155,936 28.3
Labour win (new seat)
European Parliament election, 1989: Merseyside West[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Kenneth Stewart 93,717 52.4 +10.1
Conservative M. D. Byrne 43,900 24.6 -9.2
Green L. Brown 23,052 12.9 New
SLD Mrs. H. F. (Flo) Clucas 16,327 9.1 -14.8
Protestant Reformation D. J. E. Carson 1,747 1.0 New
Majority 49,817 27.8 +19.3
Turnout 178,743 35.1 +6.8
Labour hold Swing
European Parliament election, 1994: Merseyside West[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Kenneth Stewart 78,819 58.4 +6.0
Conservative Chris J. Varley 27,008 20.0 -4.6
Liberal Democrats David Bamber 19,097 14.1 +5.0
Liberal S. R. Radford 4,714 3.5 New
Green Mrs. Linda M. Lever 4,573 3.4 -9.5[lower-alpha 1]
Natural Law John D. Collins 852 0.6 New
Majority 51,811 38.4 +10.6
Turnout 135,063 26.2 -8.9
Labour hold Swing
  1. Compared with Green Party (UK)
Merseyside West by-election 12 December 1996[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Richard Corbett 31,484 53.8 -4.6
Conservative J Myers 12,780 21.8 +1.8
Liberal Democrats Kiron J.C. Reid 8,829 15.1 +1.0
Liberal Steve Radford 4,050 6.9 +3.4
National Democrats Simon Darby 718 1.2 New
Natural Law J.D. Collins 680 1.2 +0.6
Majority 18,704 32.0 -6.4
Turnout 58,541 11.3 -14.9
Labour hold Swing

References

  1. "David Boothroyd's United Kingdom Election Results". Retrieved 20 January 2008.
  2. Boothroyd, David (21 August 2020). "United Kingdom European Parliamentary Election results 1979-99: England 2". Election Demon. Archived from the original on 21 August 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2022.


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