Merseyside West (European Parliament constituency)

Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in England, Scotland and Wales. The European Parliament constituencies used under that system were smaller than the later regional constituencies and only had one Member of the European Parliament each.

From 1984 to 1999, the constituency of Merseyside West was one of them, following on from the previous "Liverpool" constituency which existed on different boundaries from 1979 to 1984.

When it was created in England in 1984, it consisted of the Westminster Parliament constituencies of Bootle, Crosby, Liverpool Broadgreen, Liverpool Mossley Hill, Liverpool Riverside, Liverpool Walton, Liverpool West Derby, Southport, and remained broadly the same, despite the internal re-arrangement of some of these constituencies (Wavertree replacing Broadgreen and Mossley Hill, and a boundary shift for some of the others).

Ken Stewart, a left-wing and anti-Europe Labour councillor, won the seat for Labour in 1984 from the Liverpool constituency's incumbent Gloria Hooper, later Baroness Hooper. He retained it in 1989 and 1994 with increased majorities. His death in 1996 triggered a by-election, one of a number of crucial by-elections resulting in comfortable Labour victories in the closing months of John Major's Conservative government. Labour's candidate was Richard Corbett, pro-Europe (and later the Leader of the Labour MEPs, the EPLP), who held the seat until it was abolished with the introduction of the regional constituency proportional representation system in 1999. Corbett won the selection to be the Labour candidate in a ballot of all party members in the constituency, winning out against David Watts, later MP for St Helens, Margaret Wall (later Baroness Wall of New Barnet), David Martin, leader of Sefton Council and a number of other local councillors from Liverpool and Bootle.

Under the regional constituency system, Merseyside West became part of North West England.

File:MerseysideW1994EUConstituency.svg

Boundary within North West England (1994-1999)

MEPs

Elected		Member	Party
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	1984	Kenneth Stewart	Labour
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	1996 by-election	Richard Corbett	Labour
1999		Constituency abolished: see North West England

Election results

Template:Election box winning candidate with party link

European Parliament election, 1984: Merseyside West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Miss G. D. Hooper	52,718	33.8
		Paul R. Clark	37,303	23.9
Majority			13,197	8.5
Turnout			155,936	28.3
	win (new seat)

Template:Election box winning candidate with party link

European Parliament election, 1989: Merseyside West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Michael D. Byrne	43,900	24.6
		Lawrence Brown	23,052	12.9
		Mrs. H. F. (Flo) Clucas	16,327	9.1
	Protestant Reformation	D. J. E. Carson	1,747	1.0
Majority			49,817	27.8
Turnout			178,743	35.1
	hold		Swing

Template:Election box winning candidate with party link

European Parliament election, 1994: Merseyside West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Chris J. Varley	27,008	20.0
		David Bamber	19,097	14.1
		S. R. Radford	4,714	3.5
		Mrs. Linda M. Lever	4,573	3.4
		John D. Collins	852	0.6
Majority			51,811	38.4
Turnout			135,063	26.2
	hold		Swing

Template:Election box winning candidate with party link

Merseyside West by-election 12 December 1996

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Jeremy Myers	12,780	21.8
		Kiron J.C. Reid	8,829	15.1
		Steve Radford	4,050	6.9
		Simon Darby	718	1.2
		John D. Collins	680	1.2
Majority			18,704	32.0
Turnout			58,541	11.3
	hold		Swing

External links

• David Boothroyd's United Kingdom Election Results

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