Merseyside West (European Parliament constituency)

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Merseyside West
European Parliament constituency
MerseysideW1984EUConstituency.svg
Boundary within North West England (1984-1994)
Member state United Kingdom
Created 1984
Dissolved 1999
MEPs 1
Sources

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.

Contents

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.

Boundary within North West England (1994-1999) MerseysideW1994EUConstituency.svg
Boundary within North West England (1994-1999)

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]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Kenneth Stewart 65,915 42.3
Conservative Miss G. D. Hooper 52,71833.8
Liberal Paul R. Clark37,30323.9
Majority13,1978.5
Turnout 155,93628.3
Labour win (new seat)
European Parliament election, 1989: Merseyside West [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Kenneth Stewart 93,717 52.4 +10.1
Conservative Michael D. Byrne43,90024.6−9.2
Green Lawrence Brown23,05212.9New
SLD Mrs. H. F. (Flo) Clucas16,3279.1−14.8
Protestant ReformationD. J. E. Carson1,7471.0New
Majority49,81727.8+19.3
Turnout 178,74335.1+6.8
Labour hold Swing
European Parliament election, 1994: Merseyside West [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Kenneth Stewart 78,819 58.4 +6.0
Conservative Chris J. Varley27,00820.0−4.6
Liberal Democrats David Bamber19,09714.1+5.0
Liberal S. R. Radford 4,7143.5New
Green Mrs. Linda M. Lever4,5733.4−9.5
Natural Law John D. Collins8520.6New
Majority51,81138.4+10.6
Turnout 135,06326.2−8.9
Labour hold Swing
    Merseyside West by-election 12 December 1996 [2]
    PartyCandidateVotes%±%
    Labour Richard Corbett 31,484 53.8 −4.6
    Conservative Jeremy Myers12,78021.8+1.8
    Liberal Democrats Kiron J.C. Reid8,82915.1+1.0
    Liberal Steve Radford 4,0506.9+3.4
    National Democrats Simon Darby 7181.2New
    Natural Law John D. Collins6801.2+0.6
    Majority18,70432.0−6.4
    Turnout 58,54111.3−14.9
    Labour hold Swing

    References

    1. "David Boothroyd's United Kingdom Election Results" . Retrieved 20 January 2008.
    2. 1 2 3 4 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.