- Crosby (UK Parliament constituency)
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Coordinates: 53°29′28″N 3°01′44″W / 53.491°N 3.029°W
Crosby Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons 
Boundary of Crosby in Merseyside for the 2005 general election.
Location of Merseyside within England.County Merseyside 1950–2010 Number of members One Replaced by Sefton Central, Bootle Created from Waterloo Crosby was a constituency in Merseyside, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1950 until 2010. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Contents
History
Prior to 1997, the constituency was seen as a safe seat for the Conservative Party. They held the seat from its creation in 1950 until the death in 1981 of Sir Graham Page. The resulting by-election was notable as it was won by Shirley Williams, one of the "gang of four" senior members of the Labour Party who had founded the new Social Democratic Party (SDP), becoming the first SDP member to be elected. However, Williams lost the seat to the Conservative candidate Malcolm Thornton at the 1983 general election.
Thornton held the seat until the 1997 election, when he lost to Labour's Claire Curtis-Thomas who held the seat until its abolition. On 7 October 2009, it was announced that Curtis-Thomas would stand down at the 2010 general election.[1]
Boundaries
The predecessor seat to Crosby was the Waterloo constituency, which existed between 1918 and 1950. The constituency covered the whole town of Crosby which includes the localities of Great Crosby, Blundellsands, Brighton-le-Sands, Seaforth, Waterloo, Little Crosby, Hightown and Thornton, as well as the town of Formby and the village of Little Altcar, all in Sefton in Merseyside. It was bordered in the north by Southport, in the east by West Lancashire and Knowsley North and Sefton East, and in the south by Bootle.
Following a review by the Boundary Commission for England, the Crosby constituency was abolished at the 2010 general election. It was replaced by the new Sefton Central seat, which includes parts of the former Knowsley North and Sefton East constituency. As a result Formby and Little Altcar are part of the new Sefton Central constituency and the town of Crosby has been divided between two constituencies, with the two electoral wards of southern Crosby, Church and Victoria, containing the urbanised bulk of the town which includes the areas of Great Crosby, Waterloo and Seaforth, being absorbed into the expanded Bootle constituency, represented by the Labour MP Joe Benton, and the two electoral wards of northern Crosby, Blundellsands and Manor, which contains residential suburban areas such as, Blundellsands, Brighton-Lee-Sands, Little Crosby, Thornton, and Hightown, forming part of the new Sefton Central constituency represented by Bill Esterson, also a Labour MP.
Members of Parliament
Election Member[2] Party 1950 Malcolm Bullock Conservative 1953 by-election Graham Page Conservative 1981 by-election Shirley Williams Social Democratic 1983 Malcolm Thornton Conservative 1997 Claire Curtis-Thomas Labour 2010 constituency abolished: see Sefton Central and Bootle Elections
Elections in the 2000s
General Election 2005: Crosby Party Candidate Votes % ±% Labour Claire Curtis-Thomas 17,463 48.2 -6.9 Conservative Debi Jones 11,623 32.1 -0.4 Liberal Democrat Jim Murray 6,298 17.4 +6.3 UKIP John Whittaker 454 1.3 +1.3 Communist Geoffrey Bottoms 199 0.5 +0.5 Clause 28 Children's Protection Christian Democrats David Braid 157 0.4 +0.4 Majority 5,840 16.1 Turnout 36,194 66.7 +1.6 Labour hold Swing 3.2 General Election 2001: Crosby Party Candidate Votes % ±% Labour Claire Curtis-Thomas 20,327 55.1 +4.1 Conservative Robert Collinson 11,974 32.5 -2.3 Liberal Democrat Tim Drake 4,084 11.1 -0.4 Socialist Labour Mark Holt 481 1.3 N/A Majority 8,353 22.6 Turnout 36,866 65.1 -12.1 Labour hold Swing -3.2 Elections in the 1990s
General Election 1997: Crosby[3][4][5] Party Candidate Votes % ±% Labour Claire Curtis-Thomas 22,549 51.1 +22.3 Conservative Malcolm Thornton 15,367 34.8 −13.9 Liberal Democrat Paul McVey 5,080 11.5 −8.5 Referendum Party John Gauld 813 1.8 N/A Liberal John Marks 233 0.5 N/A Natural Law William Hite 99 0.2 N/A Majority 7,182 16.3 −3.7 Turnout 44,141 77.2 Labour gain from Conservative Swing 18.1 General Election 1992: Crosby[6] Party Candidate Votes % ±% Conservative Malcolm Thornton 32,267 47.4 +1.3 Labour Maria Eagle 17,461 25.7 +7.7 Liberal Democrat Mrs Helen Flo Clucas 16,562 24.3 −11.6 Liberal John Marks 1,052 1.5 +1.5 Green F.P. Sean Brady 559 0.8 +0.8 Natural Law NL Paterson 152 0.2 +0.2 Majority 14,806 21.8 +11.5 Turnout 68,053 82.5 +2.8 Conservative hold Swing −3.2 Elections in the 1980s
General Election 1987: Crosby Party Candidate Votes % ±% Conservative Malcolm Thornton 30,836 46.2 Social Democrat A F Donovan 23,989 35.9 Labour C W Cheetham 11,992 18.0 Majority 6,847 10.3 Turnout 79.6 Conservative hold Swing General Election 1983: Crosby Party Candidate Votes % ±% Conservative Malcolm Thornton 30,604 47.2 Social Democrat Shirley Williams 27,203 42.0 Labour R Waring 6,611 10.2 Ecology P Hussey 415 0.6 Majority 3,401 5.3 Turnout 77.9 Conservative hold Swing By-election 1981 Party Candidate Votes % ±% Social Democrat Shirley Williams 28,118 49.0 N/A Conservative John Butcher 22,829 39.8 -17.1 Labour John Backhouse 5,450 9.5 -15.9 Ecology Richard Small 480 0.8 -1.6 Raving Loony Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel 223 0.4 N/A Independent Tom Keen 99 0.2 N/A Democratic Monarchist, Public Safety, White Resident Bill Boaks 36 0.1 N/A Independent John Kennedy 31 0.1 N/A Independent Donald Potter 31 0.1 N/A Majority 5,289 9.2 -22.4 Turnout 57,297 69.3 -5.9 Social Democrat gain from Conservative Swing N/A See also
Notes and references
- ^ MP resigns over 'ludicrous hours' BBC News, Retrieved 7 October 2009
- ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 5)
- ^ "Politics Resources". Election 1997. Politics Resources. 1 May 1997. http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/constit/128.htm. Retrieved 2011-01-07.
- ^ C. Rallings & M. Thrasher, The Media Guide to the New Parliamentary Constituencies, p.60 (Plymouth: LGC Elections Centre, 1995)
- ^ The 1997 election result is calculated relative to the notional, not the actual, 1992 result.
- ^ "Politics Resources". Election 1992. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/ge92/ge92index.htm. Retrieved 2010-12-06.
Categories:- Parliamentary constituencies in North West England
- United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies established in 1950
- United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies disestablished in 2010
- Politics of Sefton
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