Wallasey (UK Parliament constituency)
Wallasey is a constituency in Merseyside created in 1918 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1992 by Angela Eagle, a member of the Labour Party. Boundaries 1918–1950: The County Borough of Wallasey. 1950–1983: As prior but with redrawn boundaries. 1983–2010: The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral wards of Leasowe, Liscard, Moreton, New Brighton, Seacombe, and Wallasey. The constituency boundaries remained unchanged. 2010–present: The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral wards of Leasowe and Moreton East, Liscard, Moreton West and Saughall Massie, New Brighton, Seacombe, and Wallasey. The constituency's borders remain unchanged. The constituency covers the town of Wallasey, at the north of the Wirral Peninsula, which comprises the six areas: Wallasey Village, Seacombe, Egremont, Liscard, New Brighton and Poulton, as well as Moreton and Leasowe. It is one of four constituencies covering the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Minor 2010 boundary reform and abortive proposals The Boundary Commission initially proposed the abolition in its 2005 draft review: Wallasey was to have been linked with sections of the city of Liverpool in a cross-river constituency. The areas are linked only by a road tunnel under the river Mersey. Following opposition from political parties, local MPs and local residents, the sub-plan was dropped. The change made was the omission of a 40 electors' sub-neighbourhood from formerly shared ward: Hoylake and Meols in favour of Wirral West. History The seat was created under the Representation of the People Act 1918. Summary of results Angela Eagle of the Labour Party gained the Wallasey seat in 1992. Eagle has achieved an absolute majority of votes since the 1997 general election inclusive. The 2015 result made the seat the 39-safest of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority. The seat was Conservative until 1992, with a three-year exception during World War II when represented by an ex-mayor who had been in both the Labour and Conservative parties. Increasing unemployment in the area saw the Conservative vote decline throughout the 1980s in local and general elections, only retaining Moreton West & Saughall Massie and Wallasey wards on the local level into the 2010s, with the remaining wards such as Leasowe and Seacombe safely Labour. Opposition parties A Conservative candidate has been runner-up since 1992. Weaker in Wallasey than national average, in 2015 the candidate from UKIP, Caton, amassed +8.8% swing. Liberal Democrat, Brown, lost 11.3% of the vote in that year, whereas nationally the party suffered a record -15.2% swing. Neither Brown nor his Green Party counterpart achieved more than 5% of the vote thereby forfeiting their deposits. Turnout Turnout has ranged from 82.6% in 1992 to 57.5% in 2001 — elections at which Angela Eagle was elected, and the latter election saw record-low turnout nationwide. Prominent frontbenchers Rt Hon Ernest Marples was Postmaster General while running the telephone network run by the General Post Office, Marples introduced subscriber trunk dialling, which eliminated the compulsory use of operators on national phone calls. On 2 June 1957, Marples brought in British postcodes and made the first