Sefton Central
| Sefton Central | |
|---|---|
| County constituency for the House of Commons | |
 Interactive map of boundaries since 2024 | |
 Location within North West England | |
| County | Merseyside |
| Electorate | 74,746 (March 2020)[1] |
| Major settlements | Crosby, Formby, and Maghull |
| Current constituency | |
| Created | 2010 |
| Member of Parliament | Bill Esterson (Labour) |
| Seats | One |
| Created from | Crosby Knowsley North & Sefton East |
Sefton Central is a constituency represented since its creation in 2010 by Bill Esterson of the Labour Party.[n 1][n 2]
Constituency profile
[edit]
Sefton Central is a constituency in Merseyside in North West England, covering most of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton. Its main settlements are the towns of Maghull (including Lydiate) and Formby, which both have populations of around 25,000.[2] The constituency also covers some suburbs of nearby towns, including Ainsdale (of Southport), Waddicar (of Kirkby) and Thornton and Great Crosby (both of Crosby).
This constituency covers the towns lying to the north of Liverpool, around 8 miles (13 km) from the city centre. Maghull and Formby primarily serve as commuter towns for Liverpool;[3][4] both were largely developed during the 20th century with detached and semi-detached housing estates.[5] This is an affluent constituency mostly made up of wealthy suburban neighbourhoods. Formby is a coastal town popular with tourists for its beaches, and most of the town falls within the top 10% least-deprived areas in England.[6] House prices across the constituency are generally lower than the UK average but higher than the rest of North West England.[7]
Sefton Central has a low proportion of young adults and a large retired population.[8] Residents have high levels of income and homeownership and the child poverty rate is low.[7][9] Residents have average levels of education and are likely to be religious; like much of Merseyside and Lancashire, there is a large Roman Catholic population here due to historic Irish migration.[7] A high proportion of residents work in the health, education and tourism sectors,[10] and the percentage claiming unemployment benefits is around half the UK-wide rate.[9] White people made up 97% of the population at the 2021 census.[11]
Most of the constituency is represented by the Labour Party at the local borough council, with some Liberal Democrats elected in Ainsdale and localists elected in Maghull. An estimated 57% of voters in Sefton Central supported remaining in the European Union in the 2016 referendum, higher than the UK-wide figure of 48%.[7]
Boundaries
[edit]
2010-2024
[edit]The constituency was created for the 2010 general election, replacing much of Crosby along with part of Knowsley North and Sefton East.The constituency comprised the following electoral wards of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton:[12]
Current
[edit]Further to the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the constituency was defined as being composed of the following wards of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton (as they existed on 1 December 2020):
- Ainsdale; Blundellsands; Harington; Manor; Molyneux (polling districts C1, C2 and C3); Park; Ravenmeols; Sudell.[13]
The Ainsdale ward was transferred from Southport, offset by the loss of the Aintree district in the Molyneux ward to Liverpool Walton.
Following a local government boundary review[14] which did not affect the constituency boundaries, the seat comprises the following wards of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton with effect from May 2026:
- Ainsdale; Aintree & Maghull South (excluding Aintree); Blundellsands; Formby East; Formby West; Lydiate & Maghull West; Maghull East; Thornton & Hightown.[15]
The constituency covers Merseyside northern residential suburban areas of Crosby, Blundellsands, Brighton-Le-Sands, Little Crosby, Thornton, Hightown, Formby, Ainsdale and Maghull together with the villages and localities of Carr Houses, Freshfield, Ince Blundell, Kennessee Green, Lady Green, Little Altcar, Lunt, Lydiate, Melling, Sefton, and Waddicar, in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton.
History
[edit]This seat was contested for the first time at the 2010 general election.[16]
At the time, eleven of the constituency's twenty-one councillors were Conservatives followed by the Liberal Democrats who had ten,[n 3] whereas analysis by Rallings and Thrasher indicated that had the Sefton Central constituency existed in 2005, the result would have been: Labour 45.6%, Conservative 33.6%, LibDem 19.2%, giving a Labour majority of 4,950. The Labour Party candidate's majority was 3,862 suggesting a moderate two-party swing.[16]
The area covered by this seat and its immediate predecessor Crosby was historically a strong area for the Conservatives. However, since Labour gained that seat in the 1997 election, they have held it with fairly comfortable margins for 20 years. In 2015, an 8.1% swing to Labour saw them take the area with their biggest ever majority of 11,846 votes (24.2%),[16] in accordance with the significant swing to Labour in Merseyside compared to 2010; this margin was surpassed in 2017, as Labour won more than 60% of the vote in the seat and a majority of over 30% for the first time. This suggests that since 2010, Sefton Central has changed from a key marginal between the major parties to a Labour safe seat.
Members of Parliament
[edit]| Election | Member[17] | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Bill Esterson | Labour | |
Elections
[edit]
Elections in the 2020s
[edit]| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Bill Esterson | 26,772 | 56.4 | +3.8 | |
| Conservative | Marcus Bleasdale | 8,490 | 17.9 | −16.4 | |
| Reform | Nagender Chindam | 5,767 | 12.2 | +8.6 | |
| Green | Kieran Dams | 3,294 | 6.9 | +4.8 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Gareth Lloyd-Johnson | 2,630 | 5.5 | −1.1 | |
| Independent | Ralph James | 496 | 1.0 | N/A | |
| Majority | 18,282 | 38.5 | +20.3 | ||
| Turnout | 47,449 | 63.9 | −12.5 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | +10.1 | |||
Changes are from the notional 2019 results on the 2024 boundaries.[20]
Elections in the 2010s
[edit]| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Bill Esterson | 29,254 | 57.5 | –5.5 | |
| Conservative | Wazz Mughal | 14,132 | 27.8 | –5.2 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Keith Cawdron | 3,386 | 6.7 | +4.0 | |
| Brexit Party | Paul Lomas | 2,425 | 4.8 | New | |
| Green | Alison Gibbon | 1,261 | 2.5 | +1.2 | |
| Liberal | Angela Preston | 285 | 0.6 | New | |
| Renew | Carla Burns | 137 | 0.3 | New | |
| Majority | 15,122 | 29.7 | –0.3 | ||
| Turnout | 50,880 | 72.9 | –2.6 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | –0.1 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Bill Esterson | 32,830 | 63.0 | +9.2 | |
| Conservative | Jade Marsden | 17,212 | 33.0 | +3.4 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Daniel Lewis | 1,381 | 2.7 | –1.6 | |
| Green | Mike Carter | 656 | 1.3 | –1.1 | |
| Majority | 15,618 | 30.0 | +5.8 | ||
| Turnout | 52,079 | 75.5 | +3.1 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | +2.9 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Bill Esterson | 26,359 | 53.8 | +11.9 | |
| Conservative | Valerie Allen | 14,513 | 29.6 | –4.3 | |
| UKIP | Tim Power | 4,879 | 10.0 | +5.8 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Paula Keaveney | 2,086 | 4.3 | –15.6 | |
| Green | Lindsay Melia | 1,184 | 2.4 | New | |
| Majority | 11,846 | 24.2 | +16.2 | ||
| Turnout | 49,021 | 72.4 | +0.6 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | +8.1 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Bill Esterson | 20,307 | 41.9 | –3.7 | |
| Conservative | Debi Jones | 16,445 | 33.9 | +0.4 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Richard Clein | 9,656 | 19.9 | +0.7 | |
| UKIP | Peter Harper | 2,055 | 4.2 | +3.5 | |
| Majority | 3,862 | 8.0 | −4.1 | ||
| Turnout | 48,463 | 71.8 | +11.0 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | +2.0 | |||
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ↑ A county constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
- ↑ As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years.
- ↑ A share of the vote based on the 2008 local election in these seven wards gave Conservative 42.3% Liberal Democrat 34.2% Labour 18.1%.
References
[edit]- ↑ "The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume two: Constituency names, designations and composition – North West". Boundary Commission for England. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
- ↑ "North West England". citypopulation.de. Retrieved 17 August 2026.
- ↑ "City Relationships: Economic Linkages in Northern city regions. Liverpool City Region" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 April 2012.
- ↑ "Sefton Council Core Strategy Options Paper May 2011. Profile of Sefton" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2012.
- ↑ "Accommodation type - Census Maps, ONS". ons.gov.uk. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
- ↑ "Constituency data: Deprivation in England". commonslibrary.parliament.uk. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 "Seat Details - Sefton Central". electoralcalculus.co.uk. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
- ↑ "Constituency data: Population, by age". commonslibrary.parliament.uk. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
- 1 2 "Constituency dashboard". House of Commons Library. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
- ↑ "Constituency data: businesses and industries". commonslibrary.parliament.uk. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
- ↑ "2021 census results: Ethnic groups in your constituency". commonslibrary.parliament.uk. 4 July 2024. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
- ↑ The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 2007, Office of Public Sector Information
- ↑ "The Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023". Schedule 1 Part 5 North West region.
- ↑ LGBCE. "Sefton | LGBCE". www.lgbce.org.uk. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ "Seat Details - Sefton Central". www.electoralcalculus.co.uk. Retrieved 2 October 2026.
- 1 2 3 Election history for Sefton Central, UK Parliament, n.d., retrieved 19 August 2020
- ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 2)
- ↑ "STATEMENT OF PERSONS NOMINATED AND NOTICE OF POLL" (PDF). Sefton Council. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
- ↑ "Sefton Central - General Election Results 2024". BBC News. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
- ↑ "Notional election for the constituency of Sefton Central". UK Parliament.
- ↑ "Statement of persons nominated 2019".
- ↑ "Sefton Central parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". Retrieved 13 December 2019.
- ↑ "General Election 2017: who is standing for election". Liverpool Echo. 11 May 2017.
- ↑ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ↑ "Sefton Central". BBC News. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
- ↑ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
External links
[edit]- Sefton Central UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at MapIt UK
- Sefton Central UK Parliament constituency (boundaries from June 2024) at MapIt UK
