History
The constituency was originally a safe Conservative seat, being represented by Conservative Party Leader Andrew Bonar Law from 1911 until 1918. A Liberal seat in the 1920s, it then became a Conservative - Labour marginal in the 1930s. It is now a safe seat for the Labour Party, who have held it continually since the 1945 general election. In each general election since 1997 until 2010, it was the safest seat for any party in Britain.
In 1990, there were two by-elections in Bootle. The first followed the death of Allan Roberts on 21 February, and was held on 24 May. That by-election was notable for the Social Democrat candidate, Jack Holmes (representing the part of the SDP opposed to the 1988 merger with the Liberals and formation of the Liberal Democrats), being beaten by Screaming Lord Sutch of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party. The victorious Labour candidate, Michael Carr, died after just 57 days in office on 20 July 1990.
The second by-election, held on 8 November 1990, was won by Labour's Joe Benton. Benton has held the seat since then, usually with huge majorities. In the 2005 election the seat was the safest with a 63.8% majority, and also had the highest share of the vote.
Read more about this topic: Bootle (UK Parliament Constituency)
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