Liverpool Walton (UK Parliament constituency)

Liverpool Walton is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Dan Carden of the Labour Party. Carden won the highest percentage share of the vote in June 2017 of 650 constituencies, 85.7%.

Boundaries


1918–1950: The County Borough of Liverpool wards of Fazakerley, Walton, and Warbreck.

1950–1955: As above plus the civil parish of Aintree in the Rural District of West Lancashire.

1955–1983: The County Borough of Liverpool wards of County, Fazakerley, Pirrie, and Warbreck.

1983–2010: The City of Liverpool wards of Anfield, Breckfield, County, Fazakerley, Melrose, and Warbreck.

2010–2024: The City of Liverpool wards of Anfield, Clubmoor, County, Everton, Fazakerley, and Warbreck.

The constituency is one of five covering the city of Liverpool and covers the north-centre of the city thereby taking in Walton, Clubmoor, Orrell Park, Anfield, Everton and Fazakerley. The grounds of Liverpool F.C. (Anfield) and Everton F.C. (Goodison Park), the city's two major football clubs, are in the constituency.

Current
Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, enacted by the Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023, from the 2024 United Kingdom general election, the constituency will be composed of the following wards (as they existed on 1 December 2020):


 * The City of Liverpool wards of: Clubmoor; County; Croxteth; Fazakereley; Norris Green; Warbreck.


 * The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton ward of Molyneux (polling districts C4, C5 and C6).

''The constituency will be subject to significant change, with the addition of the Croxteth and Norris Green wards from Liverpool West Derby and the Aintree district in the Sefton Borough ward of Molyneux from Sefton Central. These will be partly offset by the transfer of the Anfield and Everton wards to Liverpool Riverside.''

Liverpool was subject to a comprehensive local government boundary review which came into effect in May 2023. Accordingly, the proposed boundaries no longer coincide with ward boundaries and the constituency will now comprise the following from the 2024 general election:


 * The City of Liverpool wards or part wards of: Clubmoor East; Clubmoor West; County; Croxteth; Croxteth Country Park; Fazakerley East; Fazakerley North; Fazakerley West; Norris Green; Orrell Park; Tuebrook Larkhill (part); Walton; West Derby Muirhead (small part).


 * Part of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton ward of Molyneux (polling districts C4, C5 and C6).

History
Created by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, Liverpool Walton has been held by the Labour Party since the 1964 general election, and is the party's safest seat by size of majority. In 2010 and 2015, it had the largest Labour majority in the country by percentage terms. Labour has won over 70% of the vote at every general election in the Walton constituency since 1992, although for many years it was looked on as a reasonably safe Conservative seat. Until 1964, Labour had only gained Walton once, at their landslide victory after the Second World War in 1945. Like other seats in Merseyside, the Conservative Party's share of the vote declined rapidly during the 1980s, and Conservative candidates failed to poll in second place from 1997 until 2017. From 1964 until his death in 1991, the seat was held by the notable left-winger Eric Heffer; the subsequent by-election was won by Peter Kilfoyle, who held the seat until 2010. Steve Rotheram won the seat in 2010 after Kilfoyle stood down.

At both the 2010 and 2015 general elections, Liverpool Walton saw the highest share of the vote for a winning candidate in the country, and in the latter election, the 81.3% of the vote won by Rotheram was the highest of any candidate in an election in the UK since 1997.

In 2015, Liverpool Walton was the only constituency in England where the Conservative candidate (Norsheen Bhatti) lost their deposit.

In May 2017, Steve Rotheram was elected as Mayor of the Liverpool City Region and chose not to stand for re-election as an MP at the 2017 general election held one month later. In that election, the seat was won by the Labour candidate Dan Carden with the highest vote share for any Labour candidate nationally at 85.7%.

Elections in the 2010s
In percentage terms, Carden's vote share and majority were unmatched by any candidate in any constituency at the 2019 election, although higher turnouts and larger electorates saw fifteen other MPs — twelve Labour in London and one in Merseyside, and three Conservatives in Lincolnshire and Essex — win with bigger numerical majorities.

Elections in the 1880s


Gibson was appointed Solicitor-General for Ireland, requiring a by-election.

Gibson resigned after being appointed a Judge of the Queen's Bench Division in the High Court of Justice in Ireland, causing a by-election.

Elections in the 1910s
General Election 1914–15:

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;
 * Unionist: F. E. Smith
 * Liberal: Thomas Berridge