Southport (UK Parliament constituency)

Southport
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Southport in North West England
County	Merseyside
Electorate	74,168 (2023)[1]
Major settlements	Southport, Ainsdale-on-Sea
Current constituency
Created	1885
Member of Parliament	Patrick Hurley (Labour)
Seats	One
Created from	South West Lancashire

Southport is a constituency^{[n 1]} in Merseyside which has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Patrick Hurley of the Labour Party.^{[n 2]}

Map of boundaries 1974 to 1983

1885–1918: The Borough of Southport, the Sessional Division of Southport, and the parishes of Blundell, Great and Little Crosby, Ince, and Thornton.

1918–1983: The County Borough of Southport.

1983–2024: The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton wards of Ainsdale, Birkdale, Cambridge, Dukes, Kew, Meols, and Norwood.

Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the constituency was defined as being composed of the following as they existed on 1 December 2020:

• The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton wards of: Birkdale; Cambridge; Duke’s; Kew; Meols; Norwood.

• The Borough of West Lancashire wards of: Hesketh-with-Becconsall; North Meols; Rufford; Tarleton.^[2]

The four, largely rural, West Lancashire Borough wards were transferred from South Ribble, offset by the loss of Ainsdale ward to Sefton Central.

Following a local government boundary review in West Lancashire which came into effect in May 2023,^[3][4] the constituency will now comprise the following from the 2024 general election:

• The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton wards of: Birkdale; Cambridge; Duke’s; Kew; Meols; Norwood.

• The Borough of West Lancashire wards of: Burscough Bridge & Rufford (part); North Meols & Hesketh Bank; Tarleton Village.^[5]

The constituency covers the whole town of Southport and the localities of Birkdale, Blowick, Churchtown, Crossens, Highpark, Hillside, Kew, Marshside, Meols Cop, and Woodvale. It also now includes the West Lancashire villages of Banks, Hesketh Bank, Becconsall, Tarleton and Rufford. It is bordered to the north by Fylde (across the Ribble estuary), to the east by South Ribble, and to the south by Sefton Central and West Lancashire .

In the 19th century a notable representative was George Nathaniel Curzon, future Viceroy of India.

In the 20th century, outside politics, Edward Marshall Hall was a notable trial barrister (KC) and Sir John Fowler Leece Brunner was the son of the leading industrialist Sir John Tomlinson Brunner.

As a frontbencher, long-serving representative Robert Hudson was recognised at the time of World War II as a competent Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries in charge of that department, and was made, to give him a peerage, a viscount.^{[n 3]}

Until 2024, the constituency had been a Liberal or Conservative seat throughout its history, and marginal for much of that time, meaning that it changed hands 11 times between the parties after it was created in 1885, having had nine Conservative MPs and eight Liberal or Liberal Democrat MPs in its history.

During the nadir of the Liberal Party, from the 1930s to the 1960s, the constituency became a safe Conservative seat, with absolute majorities from 1931 until 1970 inclusive.

Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was the Labour Party candidate for the seat in 1966 and came in second place.

With the revival the Liberal Party's fortunes in the early 1970s, elections became close contests once again. The constituency changed hands in the 1987 general election, when it was won by Ronnie Fearn of the Liberal Party, for the SDP-Liberal Alliance, shortly before the two parties merged to form the Liberal Democrats. Fearn had contested the seat unsuccessfully for the Liberals throughout the 1970s.

Fearn lost the seat to the Conservatives' Matthew Banks at the 1992 election, one of the few Conservative gains at that election, only to regain it at the 1997 election. The Liberal Democrats held the seat, under John Pugh (after Fearn stood down) in 2001 until 2017.

The seat was one of the eight Liberal Democrat seats that survived its national vote share collapse at the 2015 general election, although there was a higher-than-average drop in the Liberal Democrats' vote share. Pugh opted not to re-contest the seat in the 2017 general election, at which it returned to the Conservatives, the only seat the Tories gained from the Liberal Democrats in 2017 (aside from Richmond Park, which they had gained at a 2016 by-election).

In the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union, the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, of which the constituency is a part, voted to remain in the European Union by 51.9%.^[6] Given its demography, it is estimated that Southport voted to remain by 54%.^[7]

In 2019, a resurgent Labour vote pushed the Liberal Democrats into third place for the first time since 1966 with the seat becoming a Tory-Labour marginal. Labour won the seat from the Conservatives in 2024, making it the first time Labour has held the seat, as well as the first time Labour has held every seat in Merseyside.

This is a generally affluent seaside town in the borough of Sefton which has not suffered from significant deprivation compared to its Lancashire counterpart Blackpool. Workless claimants (registered jobseekers) were in November 2012 close to the national average of 3.8%, at 4.0% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.^[8] Southport is home to the notable Royal Birkdale Golf Club, and Ainsdale Beach is part of the Sefton Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest.

• Caused by Naylor-Leyland's death.

• Caused by Curzon's appointment as Viceroy and Governor-General of India.

• List of parliamentary constituencies in Merseyside

• Election results, 1950 – 2005
• F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1885 – 1918
• F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918 – 1949

• Southport UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 1997 – April 2010) at MapIt UK
• Southport UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at MapIt UK
• Southport UK Parliament constituency (boundaries from June 2024) at MapIt UK

53°38′49″N 3°00′25″W / 53.647°N 3.007°W / 53.647; -3.007