Liverpool Wavertree (UK Parliament Constituency) - History

History

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 the former Broadgreen MP Jane Kennedy of the Labour Party from 1997 to 2010. The Liberal Democrats are the main challengers to Labour, as is the case in other Liverpool constituencies, though in the 2005 election the Labour lead over the Liberal Democrats was cut from 38 points to 15 points. Jane Kennedy stood down as MP and Luciana Berger was announced as Labour's new candidate, which caused some friction and controversy in the local constituency party, such as concerns that Berger is not locally-based (she is originally from North London), and her associations with out-going MP Kennedy.

An earlier Liverpool Wavertree constituency existed until 1983; this seat was a safe Conservative seat. While the Conservatives have fared badly in the new Wavertree constituency (polling under 7% in the 2005 general election), it is perhaps not a fair comparison, as the new constituency covers a different area, with more inner-city areas.

In the 2010 election, the Liberal Democrats targeted the seat however it was comfortably held by Labour with a 2.1% swing away from the Liberal Democrats. The turnout proved unexpectedly large and led to one polling station running out of ballot papers.. This seat also produced the BNP's worst result for a candidate standing in the 2010 election, their candidate polling just 0.4% of the vote.