Liverpool Walton

[stb12]

Liverpool Walton

[birkinabe]

SOPN available from here: liverpool.gov.uk/council/voting-and-elections/parliamentary-election-4th-july-2024/ - Con, Lab, LD, Green, Reform UK, Liberal

[batman]

In terms of vote share, is this still Labour's safest seat, and indeed the safest seat for any party?

[Ports]

Aug 11, 2024 8:39:50 GMT batman said:

In terms of vote share, is this still Labour's safest seat, and indeed the safest seat for any party?

This had the highest vote share for Labour and for anyone except the Speaker but Bootle was safer by % majority, so second safest in the country that way.

[Merseymike]

Aug 11, 2024 8:50:03 GMT Ports said:

Aug 11, 2024 8:39:50 GMT batman said:

In terms of vote share, is this still Labour's safest seat, and indeed the safest seat for any party?

This had the highest vote share for Labour and for anyone except the Speaker but Bootle was safer by % majority, so second safest in the country that way.

Well, I did vote for the safest Labour seat!!

[batman]

Well, Bootle is always up there.......

On its current boundaries, it probably would have been fairly close at times in the 50s as in those days Crosby was strongly Tory. Even when I was a student Crosby was quite strongly Tory, at least until the 1981 by-election.

[finsobruce]

Aug 11, 2024 11:12:04 GMT batman said:

Well, Bootle is always up there.......

On its current boundaries, it probably would have been fairly close at times in the 50s as in those days Crosby was strongly Tory. Even when I was a student Crosby was quite strongly Tory, at least until the 1981 by-election.

Bootle could be fairly described as a marginal until the 1970s when the Labour majority went into five figures. Labour didn't stand until the election of 1923 with the future MP John Kinley as candidate. Between 1923 and 1929 the Labour vote increased by 30%.

It is arguable that the Seaman's Union leader Edmund Cathery was a proto/proxy Labour candidate in 1918 getting 37% of the vote, but he was not endorsed by either Labour or the Liberals. In 1923 the Independent candidate J E Burke only managed 425 votes,  his election adverts used the following doggerel, which may, or may not give us an idea of his politics.

"Why Bootle should vote for Burke,

Because he means to find us work.

Having found us work he will build about,

Till all hounds have got their house.

Not content to sleep in peace

Will he be till bread is cheap".

The verse was crowned with the heading "All for the Country".

His campaign does seem to have been very low key. The only other reference I can find is a Liverpool Express story on the run up to the election saying that his supporters "are not conspicuous".

[nyx]

Aug 11, 2024 8:39:50 GMT batman said:

In terms of vote share, is this still Labour's safest seat, and indeed the safest seat for any party?

By vote share (for all parties):

1) Chorley (Speaker), 74.3%
2) Liverpool Walton (Labour), 70.6%
3) Bootle (Labour), 68.8%
4) Knowsley (Labour), 67.3%
5) Liverpool West Derby (Labour), 66.6%
6) Westmorland and Lonsdale (Lib Dem), 62.7%
7) Liverpool Riverside (Labour), 61.9%
8) Widnes and Halewood (Labour), 61.6%
9) Dulwich and West Norwood (Labour), 60.3%
10) Hackney South and Stoke Newington (Labour), 59.5%

By margin:

1) Chorley (Speaker), 60.6%
2) Bootle (Labour), 56.5%
3) Liverpool Walton (Labour), 54.9%
4) Liverpool West Derby (Labour), 53.7%
5) Knowsley (Labour), 50.8%
6) Liverpool Garston (Labour), 47.9%
7) Liverpool Riverside (Labour), 45.7%
8) Lewisham East (Labour), 44.5%
9) York Central (Labour), 44.0%
10) Hornsey and Friern Barnet (Labour), 43.9%

By number of votes:

1) Westmorland and Lonsdale (Lib Dem), 31061
2) Twickenham (Lib Dem), 30185
3) Winchester (Lib Dem), 29939
4) St Albans (Lib Dem), 29222
5) Tooting (Labour), 29209
6) Brighton Pavilion (Green), 28809
7) Hornsey and Friern Barnet (Labour), 28535
8) Richmond Park (Lib Dem), 28528
9) Esher and Walton (Lib Dem), 28315
10) Lewisham West and East Dulwich (Labour), 27406

[batman]

it's almost like Table 1 needs to be read out in a Scouse accent. (I gladly volunteer for this duty.)