Salford and Eccles

Boundary changes: Major. This, the success seat to the underpopulated Salford seat, looses Broughton but gains part of the abolished Eccles seat.

Profile: An inner-city seat in Greater Manchester, sandwiched between the river Irwell and the Manchester Ship canal and pushing right up towards Manchester City Centre itself (the boundary between Manchester and Salford is the river Irwell, or parts of the this seat would undoubted be in Manchester).

This is a constituency of decline and redevelopment. The towns of Swinton and Pendlebury in the North were once thriving cotton mill and coal mining towns, the factories that LS Lowry (who lived and worked here, and is now remembered by the huge new Lowry arts complex in the redeveloped docks) were there, but had closed by the 1990s. The old Pendlebury colliery and power station have been partially replaced by a business park and a private prison.

Between the wars Salford was home to massively overpopulated back-to-back slums, they were cleared in the 1960s, being replaced by housing estates that by the 1990s had in turn also devolved into slums cursed by unemployment, shootings and gang violence. Since then there has been another round of redevelopment: the vacant rows of terraced houses in Langworthy have been redeveloped for young professionals and the old Salford Docks on the ship canal are the core of the massive Salford Quays redevelopment, which as well as the Lowry Centre includes the new MediaCity which will be the home of BBC`s sport and children`s television departments from 2011.

Current MP: Hazel Blears(Labour) born 1956, Salford. Educated at Wardley Grammar School and Trent Polytechnic. Solicitor. Salford councillor from 1984-1992. Contested Tatton 1987, Bury South 1992. First elected as MP for Salford in 1997. Diminutive, motorcycling and preternaturally chirpy loyalist. Served as PPS to Alan Milburn and then Andrew Smith in the 1997-2001 Parliament. Junior minister in the Department of Health 2001-2003, Minister of State at the Home Office 2003-2006, Labour Party Chairman 2006-2007, Secretary of State for Communities 2007-2009, resigning immediately before the European and local elections in a move widely seen as a attempt to destabilise Gordon Brown, having been criticised by him in the expenses row. Contested Labour deputy leadership in 2007 (more information at They work for you)

2010 election candidates:
Matthew Sephton (Conservative)
Hazel Blears(Labour) born 1956, Salford. Educated at Wardley Grammar School and Trent Polytechnic. Solicitor. Salford councillor from 1984-1992. Contested Tatton 1987, Bury South 1992. First elected as MP for Salford in 1997. Diminutive, motorcycling and preternaturally chirpy loyalist. Served as PPS to Alan Milburn and then Andrew Smith in the 1997-2001 Parliament. Junior minister in the Department of Health 2001-2003, Minister of State at the Home Office 2003-2006, Labour Party Chairman 2006-2007, Secretary of State for Communities 2007-2009, resigning immediately before the European and local elections in a move widely seen as a attempt to destabilise Gordon Brown, having been criticised by him in the expenses row. Contested Labour deputy leadership in 2007 (more information at They work for you)
Norman Owen (Liberal Democrat) Educated at Salford Technical College. Salford councillor. Contested Salford East 1992, Salford 1997, 2001.
Duran O`Dwyer (UKIP)
Tina Wingfield (BNP) PA to Nick Griffin.
Stephen Morris (English Democrat) Born 1966. Educated at Wardley High School and Salford College of Technology. Manager at Metrolink public transport. Contested North West region 2009 European elections.
David Henry (TUSC) Member of the local Green party and standing as the candidate of the Hazel Must Go campaign, supported by TUSC.
Richard Carvath (Independent) Educated at Moorside High School.