Liverpool Garston

Liverpool Garston is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. Since its recreation for the 2024 general election, its MP is Maria Eagle of the Labour Party.

The seat was first established in 1950, but was abolished in 2010, before being re-established in 2024.

Constituency profile

Liverpool Garston is a constituency in Merseyside. It covers the southern neighbourhoods of the city of Liverpool, including Garston, Speke, Hunt's Cross, Allerton, Woolton, Gateacre, Belle Vale and Netherley. Liverpool is a large port city with a history of slave trading and importation of goods for Lancashire's industry. The city underwent economic decline in the 1970s as the docks and manufacturing industries declined in importance, but has experienced regeneration in the 21st century. This constituency has average levels of deprivation and is the wealthiest of Liverpool's five constituencies. Netherley, Belle Vale and Speke are highly-deprived with large quantities of council housing. Speke is located next to a large industrial estate which includes the Jaguar Land Rover and Ford automotive factories, and is also next to Liverpool John Lennon Airport, all of which are significant local employers. Allerton and Gateacre are affluent and suburban in character. House prices in the constituency are higher than the rest of North West England but lower than the national average.

In general, residents of Liverpool Garston have average levels of education, homeownership, income and unemployment. A high proportion of residents work in the retail and transport sectors. White people made up 91% of the population at the 2021 census. Like the rest of Liverpool, the percentage of residents identifying as Christian is high and there is a large population of Catholics due to historic Irish migration.

1983–1997: The City of Liverpool wards of Allerton, Netherley, St Mary's, Speke, Valley, and Woolton.

1997–2010: The City of Liverpool wards of Allerton, Grassendale, Netherley, St Mary's, Speke, Valley, and Woolton.

The constituency was one of five covering the city of Liverpool, covering the southern part of the city. As well as Garston, it contained areas such as Allerton, Netherley, Speke and Woolton. Liverpool John Lennon Airport was located in the constituency.

The Liverpool Garston seat was abolished at the 2010 general election following boundary changes. It was replaced with a new Garston and Halewood constituency, also covering part of the Knowsley borough.

Current

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

Allerton and Hunts Cross; Belle Vale; Church; Cressington; Speke-Garston; Woolton.

The seat comprises the (former) City of Liverpool wards previously in the abolished constituency of Garston and Halewood, with the addition of Church ward from Liverpool Wavertree.

Liverpool was subject to a comprehensive local government boundary review which came into effect in May 2023. As a result, the new constituency boundaries do not align with the revised ward boundaries. The constituency now comprises the following wards or part wards of the City of Liverpool from the 2024 general election:

Allerton; Belle Vale; Calderstones; Childwall (small part); Church (small part); Garston; Gateacre (nearly all); Grassendale & Cressington; Mossley Hill (small part); Much Woolton & Hunts Cross; Penny Lane (majority); Speke; Springwood; Woolton Village.

History

Following its 1950 creation, Liverpool Garston was initially a safe Conservative seat, being won by the party by wide margins in the 1950s. It became more marginal in the 1960s and was gained by the Labour Party for the first time at the February 1974 general election. The Conservatives regained the seat amid their national election victory in 1979, but despite retaining Conservative-leaning areas as Allerton and Woolton, boundary changes for the 1983 general election removed the middle-class, Conservative-voting Aigburth area, making the seat notionally Labour again. Labour duly won the seat in 1983 and held it with increasingly large majorities until its abolition in 2010. Its MP since 1997 had been Maria Eagle, who represented the constituency which largely replaced it, the similarly safely Labour Garston and Halewood, between 2010 and 2024, before once again representing Liverpool Garston upon its re-establishment in 2024.