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Liverpool Wavertree (UK Parliament constituency) - Wikipedia

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Liverpool Wavertree
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Liverpool Wavertree in North West England
County	Merseyside
Electorate	71,067 (2023)^[1]
Major settlements	Broad Green, Edge Hill, Wavertree
Current constituency
Created	1997
Member of Parliament	Paula Barker (Labour)
Seats	One
Created from	Liverpool Broadgreen, Liverpool Mossley Hill
1918–1983
Seats	One
Type of constituency	Borough constituency
Created from	Liverpool East Toxteth and Liverpool Walton
Replaced by	Liverpool Broadgreen, Liverpool Mossley Hill and Liverpool Garston^[2]

Liverpool Wavertree is a borough constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1997 and every election since has been won by a Labour Party candidate. It has been represented by Paula Barker since 2019.

An earlier constituency of the same name existed between 1918 and 1983, but lay further to the south-east, and was a predominantly Conservative seat.

Map of present boundaries

Liverpool Wavertree in Lancashire, boundaries used 1974–1983

1918–1950: The County Borough of Liverpool wards of Allerton, Childwall and Little Woolton, Garston, Much Woolton, Wavertree, and Wavertree West.

1950–1955: The County Borough of Liverpool wards of Old Swan, Wavertree, and Wavertree West.^[3]

1955–1983: The County Borough of Liverpool wards of Broadgreen, Childwall, Church, and Old Swan.^[4]

1997–2010: The City of Liverpool wards of Broadgreen, Childwall, Church, Kensington, Old Swan, and Picton.

2010–2024: The City of Liverpool wards of Childwall, Church, Kensington and Fairfield, Old Swan, Picton, and Wavertree.

Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the constituency was defined as being composed of the following wards of the City of Liverpool as they existed on 1 December 2020:

Childwall; Greenbank; Kensington and Fairfield; Mossley Hill; Picton; St. Michael’s; Wavertree.^[5]

The constituency was subject to significant change, with addition of the (former) wards of Greenbank, Mossley Hill and St Michael's wards from Liverpool Riverside, partly offset by the transfer of the Church ward to Liverpool Garston and the Old Swan ward to Liverpool West Derby.

Liverpool was subject to a comprehensive local government boundary review which came into effect in May 2023.^[6]^[7] As a result, the new constituency boundaries do not align with the revised ward boundaries. The constituency now comprises the following wards or part wards of the City of Liverpool from the 2024 general election:

Aigburth; Arundel; Canning (small part); Childwall (most); Church (most); Edge Hill (nearly all); Everton East (small part); Festival Gardens (part); Gateacre (very small part); Greenbank Park; Kensington & Fairfield (most); Mossley Hill (most); Old Swan West; Penny Lane (part); Princes Park (small part); Sefton Park; Smithdown; St Michaels; Wavertree Garden Suburbs; Wavertree Village.^[8]

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. ^{[needs update]}

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 Jane Kennedy of the Labour Party from 1997 to 2010, who was also the former MP for Liverpool Broadgreen. At the 2005 general election, the Labour lead over the Liberal Democrats was cut from 38 points to 15 points.^[9] At the 2010 general election, Jane Kennedy retired, and Luciana Berger was selected as the official Labour candidate, which caused some friction in the local CLP, especially due to her close connection with Kennedy.^[10]

An earlier Liverpool Wavertree constituency existed until 1983; this was further to the south-east in the city and was predominantly a Conservative seat, occasionally with large majorities. It had been created in 1918, but a declining population in the 1970s caused it to be split between Liverpool Garston, the newly formed Liverpool Broadgreen and Liverpool Mossley Hill constituencies. While the Conservatives have fared badly in the new Wavertree constituency (polling under 7% at the 2005 general election), a direct comparison must take into account the differing boundaries since the 1997 recreation:^[9] with more inner-city areas than its previous incarnation, the seat is home to constituents on a lower income than the average in the North West^[11] and who are traditionally less sympathetic to Conservative policies. The 2015 general election result made the seat the seventh-safest of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority.^[12]

At the 2010 general election, the Liberal Democrats' targeting of the seat led to a high turnout;^[13] however, it was comfortably retained by Labour with a 2.1% swing away from the Liberal Democrats. The unexpected turnout led, unusually, to one polling station running out of ballot papers.^[13]

Members of Parliament

[edit]

Election	Member^[14]	Party
1918	Nathan Raw		Coalition Conservative
1922	Sir Harold Smith		Unionist
1923	Hugh Rathbone		Liberal
1924	John Tinné		Unionist
1931 by-election	Ronald Nall-Cain		Conservative
1935 by-election	Joseph Cleary		Labour
1935	Peter Stapleton Shaw		Conservative
1945	Victor Raikes
1950	John Tilney
Feb 1974	Anthony Steen
1983	Constituency abolished
1997	Jane Kennedy		Labour
2010	Luciana Berger		Labour Co-op
Feb 2019		Change UK
Jun 2019		Independent
Jul 2019		The Independents
Sep 2019		Liberal Democrats
2019	Paula Barker		Labour