- Merseyside West (European Parliament constituency)
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Merseyside West
European Parliament constituency
European Parliament logo Created 1984 Dissolved 1999 MEP(s) 1 Member State United Kingdom Source(s) [1] 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.
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 incumbent (Liverpool constituency) Gloria Hooper, later Baroness Hooper. He retained it in 1989 and 1994 with increased majorities. His death in 1996 triggered the Merseyside West 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 Deputy Leader of the Labour MEPs, who held the seat until it was abolished with the introduction of the regional constituency proportional representation system in 1999. Corbett won selection as the Labour candidate against David Watts, later MP for St Helens, Margaret Wall (later Baroness Wall of New Barnet), and a number of local councillors from Liverpool and Bootle.
Under the regional constituency system, Merseyside West became part of the North West England.
Merseyside West by-election 1996[2] Party Candidate Votes % ±% Labour Richard Corbett 31,484 53.8 Conservative J Myers 12,780 21.8 Liberal Democrat K.J.C. Reid 8,829 15.1 Liberal Steve Radford 4,050 6.9 National Democrats Simon Darby 718 1.2 Natural Law J.D. Collins 680 1.2 Majority 18,704 32.0 Turnout 58,541 11.3 References
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