Warrington South (UK Parliament Constituency) - History

History

The constituency was created in 1983. Prior to then, the Warrington constituency covered the central part of the town and surrounding area, while the southern fringes were in the Runcorn constituency and the surrounding area to the north was covered by the Newton constituency. The current boundaries were introduced at the 1997 general election, when the number of constituencies in Cheshire were increased and the new Weaver Vale seat was created.

Politically, Warrington South is considered the more interesting of the two Warrington seats. While Warrington North is a safe seat for the Labour Party, Warrington South is regarded as a bellwether constituency, reflecting the fate of the major parties at the national level. As such it was held by the Conservatives from 1983 until 1992 (until 1987 by the former Runcorn MP Mark Carlisle, then by Chris Butler), when it was taken by Labour's Mike Hall. Hall moved to the new Weaver Vale seat in 1997, and Helen Southworth (also of the Labour Party) represented the seat until her retirement at the 2010 election, whereby the Conservative candidate David Mowat won the seat from Labour.

On 15 June 2009, Helen Southworth MP announced that she would be retiring at the 2010 General Election, and that the Labour Party would be selecting a new Parliamentary candidate. On 9 January 2010 Nick Bent was selected as the Labour candidate.