Post by doktorb🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ on Jan 3, 2024 12:18:39 GMT
This contains content from Merseymike and Pete Whitehead and my own.
Boundary changes in Liverpool this time around feature a lot of wards swapping around in a circular fashion, wards moving from the previous Walton into Riverside, and from the current West Derby to the new Walton. Almost all the existing constituency names remain, including here in Walton even though the number of candidates for possible names is plentiful: Warbreck, Fazakerley, Croxeth.
The new Walton puts that ward in the corner of the seat, and crosses into Sefton to incorporate Aintree, including the racecourse. The housing around this are long streets of fairly standard looking two-bedrooms with an estate-style pub in the middle. Two railway stations on the Ormskirk line are only just in the new seat: Old Roan, named for a long since derelict pub, and Aintree itself, and it would be quite the tangent to discuss the history of the railways around here: stations have been built and closed, and entire lines mothballed, in a confusing timeline of different companies and organisations.
To the south of here is Fazakerley, with its own railway station on the Kirkby line to the new station at Headbolt Lane, where electric Merseyrail stops and diesel Northern Rail begins. In Warbreck ward, two railway stations on the two lines I've mentioned so far are adjacent to each other with no interchange between them: Walton, and Rice Lane.
This is a very safe Labour seat. Dan Carden, its MP, hit the heights of 85.7%, dropping only to 84.7% in 2019. Yet, the seat was only gained by Labour from the Conservatives in 1964, with one previous period of Labour representation in 1945-50. The seat is certainly much larger, geographically, than it was in the 1950's, but all of its current constituted areas are safely Labour. The past influence of sectarianism on Liverpool politics should not be understimated. The constituency still has a church which was opened by the late Rev. Ian Paisley, and has direct links to the Northern Irish Free Presbyterians, and the area was certainly regarded as a former centre of strength for the Orange Order, which led to a Tory tradition which only really started to decline in electoral tems in 1974. While holding on to second place, the Tory percentage of just 9.9% does not suggest anything other than a residual position. The Tories actually lost their deposit in 2015.
The existing seat consists of largely terraced housing, particularly in County and Warbreck wards, with much more social housing in Clubmoor and Everton (to be moved into Riverside). Evidence of solid Victorian housing, with once middle class occupants, is present in both Anfield and County wards, but this is a classic example of a strongly white, working class seat where the Labour vote has remained solid as it has within much of the Liverpool City Region. Locally, the LibDems did win three of the current wards at least once (Warbreck, Anfield and County) , with each ward having three LibDem councillors until 2008. Their vote collapsed and they re-gained a single seat via a defection in County ward in 2018.
Following significant issues with the City Council, all the existing electoral wards have been ripped up and started again. These include Orrell Park, and the Clubmoor wards are divided into two. Across the wards Labour are far away the runaway winners: 60-odd to the high 70-odd percentages in each single-ward contest.
Boundary changes make this seat more suburban but not much less solidly Labour.
2011 Census
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2021 Census, new boundaries
Age 65+ 16.0% 412/575
Owner occupied 53.1% 476/575
Private rented 19.8% 214/575
Social rented 27.1% 48/575
White 92.2% 258/575
Black 2.0% 233/575
Asian 3.0% 339/575
Christian 67.1% 2/575
Managerial & professional 21.1% 544/575
Routine & Semi-routine 31.5% 49/575
Degree level 22.9% 529/575
No qualifications 26.7% 24/575
Students 6.6% 205/575
Boundary Changes
Liverpool Walton consists of
68.6% of Liverpool Walton
34.0% of Liverpool West Derby
7.9% of Sefton Central
Map
boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk/review2023/9bc0b2ea-7915-4997-9d4a-3e313c0ceb51/north-west/North%20West_246_Liverpool%20West%20Derby_Landscape.pdf
Boundary changes in Liverpool this time around feature a lot of wards swapping around in a circular fashion, wards moving from the previous Walton into Riverside, and from the current West Derby to the new Walton. Almost all the existing constituency names remain, including here in Walton even though the number of candidates for possible names is plentiful: Warbreck, Fazakerley, Croxeth.
The new Walton puts that ward in the corner of the seat, and crosses into Sefton to incorporate Aintree, including the racecourse. The housing around this are long streets of fairly standard looking two-bedrooms with an estate-style pub in the middle. Two railway stations on the Ormskirk line are only just in the new seat: Old Roan, named for a long since derelict pub, and Aintree itself, and it would be quite the tangent to discuss the history of the railways around here: stations have been built and closed, and entire lines mothballed, in a confusing timeline of different companies and organisations.
To the south of here is Fazakerley, with its own railway station on the Kirkby line to the new station at Headbolt Lane, where electric Merseyrail stops and diesel Northern Rail begins. In Warbreck ward, two railway stations on the two lines I've mentioned so far are adjacent to each other with no interchange between them: Walton, and Rice Lane.
This is a very safe Labour seat. Dan Carden, its MP, hit the heights of 85.7%, dropping only to 84.7% in 2019. Yet, the seat was only gained by Labour from the Conservatives in 1964, with one previous period of Labour representation in 1945-50. The seat is certainly much larger, geographically, than it was in the 1950's, but all of its current constituted areas are safely Labour. The past influence of sectarianism on Liverpool politics should not be understimated. The constituency still has a church which was opened by the late Rev. Ian Paisley, and has direct links to the Northern Irish Free Presbyterians, and the area was certainly regarded as a former centre of strength for the Orange Order, which led to a Tory tradition which only really started to decline in electoral tems in 1974. While holding on to second place, the Tory percentage of just 9.9% does not suggest anything other than a residual position. The Tories actually lost their deposit in 2015.
The existing seat consists of largely terraced housing, particularly in County and Warbreck wards, with much more social housing in Clubmoor and Everton (to be moved into Riverside). Evidence of solid Victorian housing, with once middle class occupants, is present in both Anfield and County wards, but this is a classic example of a strongly white, working class seat where the Labour vote has remained solid as it has within much of the Liverpool City Region. Locally, the LibDems did win three of the current wards at least once (Warbreck, Anfield and County) , with each ward having three LibDem councillors until 2008. Their vote collapsed and they re-gained a single seat via a defection in County ward in 2018.
Following significant issues with the City Council, all the existing electoral wards have been ripped up and started again. These include Orrell Park, and the Clubmoor wards are divided into two. Across the wards Labour are far away the runaway winners: 60-odd to the high 70-odd percentages in each single-ward contest.
Boundary changes make this seat more suburban but not much less solidly Labour.
Age 65+ 14.6% 489/650
Bad health 7.9% 10/650
Long term sick or disabled 10.3% 7/650
Lone parent with dependent children 13.0% 9/650
Owner-occupied 47.1% 592/650
Private rented 21.0% 107/650
Social rented 30.1% 53/650
White 95.1% 316/650
Black 1.1% 248/650
Asian 1.9% 372/650
Christian 78.3% 8/650
Managerial & professional 17.2%
Routine & Semi-routine 35.7%
Degree level 13.3% 644/650
No qualifications 36.5% 11/650
Students 8.2% 212/650
2021 Census
Owner occupied 45.4% 526/573
Private rented 24.7% 116/573
Social rented 29.9% 31/573
White 88.9%
Black 2.7%
Asian 3.9%
Christian 64.2% 7/650
Managerial & professional 18.6% 567/573
Routine & Semi-routine 32.2% 40/573
Degree level 22.3% 539/573
No qualifications 28.2% 14/573
General Election 2019: Liverpool Walton
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Dan Carden 34,538 84.7 -1.0
Conservative Alex Phillips 4,018 9.9 +1.3
Green Ted Grant 814 2.0 +0.8
Liberal Democrats David Newman 756 1.9 +0.4
Liberal Billy Lake 660 1.6 N
Lab Majority 30,520 74.8 -2.3
Age 65+ 16.0% 412/575
Owner occupied 53.1% 476/575
Private rented 19.8% 214/575
Social rented 27.1% 48/575
White 92.2% 258/575
Black 2.0% 233/575
Asian 3.0% 339/575
Christian 67.1% 2/575
Managerial & professional 21.1% 544/575
Routine & Semi-routine 31.5% 49/575
Degree level 22.9% 529/575
No qualifications 26.7% 24/575
Students 6.6% 205/575
Boundary Changes
Liverpool Walton consists of
68.6% of Liverpool Walton
34.0% of Liverpool West Derby
7.9% of Sefton Central
Map
boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk/review2023/9bc0b2ea-7915-4997-9d4a-3e313c0ceb51/north-west/North%20West_246_Liverpool%20West%20Derby_Landscape.pdf
2019 Notional result
Lab | 38113 | 81.9% |
Con | 4815 | 10.4% |
LD | 1116 | 2.4% |
BxP | 930 | 2.0% |
Grn | 875 | 1.9% |
Oth | 669 | 1.4% |
Majority | 33298 | 71.6% |