West Lancashire is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

represented in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

of the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremac ...

. Following the resignation of

Rosie Cooper Rosemary Elizabeth Cooper (born 5 September 1950) is a British health official and former Labour Party politician who has served as the chair of Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust since November 2022. Previously, she served as the Member of Parl ...

on 30 November 2022, the seat is currently vacant pending a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

which is expected to be held in early 2023.

Constituency profile

The constituency is located in southern Lancashire, and borders

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

to the south and west and

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

to the east.

Skelmersdale Skelmersdale is a town in Lancashire, England, on the River Tawd, west of Wigan, northeast of Liverpool and southwest of Preston. In 2006, it had a population of 38,813. The town is known locally as Skem . While the first record of the tow ...

is the largest town, followed by

Ormskirk Ormskirk is a market town in the West Lancashire district of Lancashire, England, north of Liverpool, northwest of St Helens, southeast of Southport and southwest of Preston. Ormskirk is known for its gingerbread. Geography and administr ...

and

Burscough Burscough () is a town and civil parish in West Lancashire in the ceremonial county of Lancashire, England. It is located to the north of Ormskirk and northwest of Skelmersdale. The parish also includes the hamlet of Tarlscough and the Martin ...

. The constituency shares its boundaries with the southern part of the borough of

West Lancashire West Lancashire is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. The council is based in Ormskirk, and the largest town in the borough is Skelmersdale. At the 2011 Census, the population of the borough was 110,685 ...

, while the northern part of the borough is in the

South Ribble South Ribble is a borough in the county of Lancashire, England. Its council is based in Leyland. The population, at the 2011 Census, was 109,057. Notable towns and villages include Walton le Dale, Bamber Bridge, Leyland and Penwortham. It ...

constituency. Farming is a significant industry in the constituency, with much of the farmland classed as grade 1 or grade 2. The entirety of the constituency is within the

North West Green Belt The North West Green Belt is a green belt environmental and planning policy that regulates the rural space throughout mainly the North West region of England. It is contained within the counties of Cheshire, Derbyshire, Greater Manchester, ...

. West Lancashire is home to a significant proportion of those working at managerial and professional levels and an above average retired age quotient. Workless claimants who were registered jobseekers were in November 2012 lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 3.5% of the population based on a statistical compilation by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''.

Boundaries

2010–present: Ashurst, Aughton and Downholland, Aughton Park, Bickerstaffe, Birch Green, Burscough East, Burscough West, Derby, Digmoor, Halsall, Knowsley, Moorside, Newburgh, Parbold, Scarisbrick, Scott, Skelmersdale North, Skelmersdale South, Tanhouse, Upholland, and Wrightington. The constituency boundaries remained unchanged. 1997–2010: Aughton Park, Aughton Town Green, Bickerstaffe, Birch Green, Burscough, Derby, Digmoor, Downholland, Halsall, Knowsley, Lathom, Moorside, Newburgh, Parbold, Scarisbrick, Scott, Skelmersdale North, Skelmersdale South, Tanhouse, Upholland North, Upholland South, and Wrightington. 1983–1997: Aughton Park, Aughton Town Green, Bickerstaffe, Birch Green, Burscough, Derby, Digmoor, Downholland, Halsall, Hesketh-with-Becconsall, Knowsley, Lathom, Moorside, Newburgh, North Meols, Rufford, Scarisbrick, Scott, Skelmersdale North, Skelmersdale South, Tanhouse, Tarleton, Upholland North, and Upholland South.

History

The seat was established under the third periodic review of Westminster constituencies of 1983. The new seat took in parts of

and

Ince Ince may refer to: *Ince, Cheshire, a village in Cheshire, UK *Ince-in-Makerfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, UK *Ince (UK Parliament constituency), a former constituency covering Ince-in-Makerfield *Ince (ward), an electoral ward covering ...

, both abolished in the review. Ince had elected Labour MPs since 1906, but Ormskirk had a mixed and longer history as a more

marginal seat A marginal seat or swing seat is a constituency held with a small majority in a legislative election, generally one conducted under a single-winner voting system. In Canada, they may be known as target ridings. The opposite is a safe seat. The ...

. Both seats were represented by Labour MPs when they were abolished. The seat's first member, Ken Hind, held the seat for two terms as a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

, winning the first election in the landslide Conservative result of 1983. In 1992 the seat was won by

Colin Pickthall Colin Pickthall (born 13 September 1944) is a politician in the United Kingdom. He was Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for West Lancashire. He was first elected to the House of Commons in 1992, and retired at the general election of 2005. Pic ...

of the Labour Party, who was succeeded by

in 2005. The 2010 result was more

marginal Marginal may refer to: * ''Marginal'' (album), the third album of the Belgian rock band Dead Man Ray, released in 2001 * ''Marginal'' (manga) * '' El Marginal'', Argentine TV series * Marginal seat or marginal constituency or marginal, in polit ...

, with a 9.0% majority, but was not within the 50 most narrowly won seats for Cooper's party. In September 2022 Rosie Cooper announced she had accepted a new role as Chair of

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust runs a specialist mental health trust and provides learning disabilities, addiction management, acquired brain injury services and the provision of community nursing and therapies services in The City of Liv ...

and would therefore resign as MP, triggering a

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

¹: After nominations were closed, Sen was suspended from UKIP after sending an allegedly anti-semitic tweet to

Liverpool Wavertree Liverpool Wavertree is a borough constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1997 and every election since has been won by a Labour Party candidate. An earlier constituency of the same name existed between 1918 and ...

Labour candidate

Luciana Berger Luciana Clare Berger (; born 13 May 1981) is a British former Member of Parliament who was MP for Liverpool Wavertree from 2010 to 2019. Initially a member of Labour Co-op, in 2019 she left and co-founded The Independent Group, later Change UK ...

. His name still appeared on ballot papers with the UKIP party name.

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

Notes

References

Sources

Election results, 1983 - 2001
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lancashire West West Lancs Parliamentary constituencies in North West England Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1983 Politics of the Borough of West Lancashire