Sefton Central
2010 Results:
Conservative: 16445 (33.93%)
Labour: 20307 (41.9%)
Liberal Democrat: 9656 (19.92%)
UKIP: 2055 (4.24%)
Majority: 3862 (7.97%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Labour: 19184 (46.2%)
Conservative: 13642 (32.9%)
Liberal Democrat: 7543 (18.2%)
Other: 1146 (2.8%)
Majority: 5542 (13.3%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 11623 (32.1%)
Labour: 17463 (48.2%)
Liberal Democrat: 6298 (17.4%)
UKIP: 454 (1.3%)
Other: 356 (1%)
Majority: 5840 (16.1%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 11974 (32.5%)
Labour: 20327 (55.1%)
Liberal Democrat: 4084 (11.1%)
Other: 481 (1.3%)
Majority: 8353 (22.7%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 15367 (34.8%)
Labour: 22549 (51.1%)
Liberal Democrat: 5080 (11.5%)
Referendum: 813 (1.8%)
Other: 332 (0.8%)
Majority: 7182 (16.3%)
Boundary changes: Major. The seat loses part of Crosby itself to Bootle, while gaining the Sefton parts of the old Knowsley North and Sefton East seat, namely Park, Sudell and Molyneaux wards, which include Maghull. Concerns about splitting Crosby were raised at the boundary review, but alternative plans would have had to split Bootle or Maghull instead. With only part of Crosby in the new seat, the name was changed to Sefton Central.
Profile: Sefton Central is a suburban seat stretching along the Irish sea coast north between Southport and Liverpool, covering the northern part of Crosby, Maghull and Formby. It is a relatively affluent seat with some of the most desirable areas of housing in Merseyside such as Blundellsands and Freshfields. Mostly residential in character, it is also a popular with tourists in the Summer. Crosby beach is the site of Antony Gormley`s sculpture another place – consisting of 100 upright, cast-iron, life-size figures, scattered for 2 miles across the beach.
Despite being a notional Labour seat, at a local level the Labour party do not have a single councillor, with the wards held by either the Conservatives or Liberal Democrats. Its predecessor Crosby was once regarded as a safe Conservative seat until the iconic 1981 by-election victory by the SDP`s Shirley Williams. Even so, it returned to the Tories and was held by them until 1997.
Current MP: Bill Esterson (Labour) Runs a training consultancy. Medway councillor.
Debi Jones (Conservative) Television and radio presenter. Sefton borough councillor since 2006. Contested Crosby in 2005. Bill Esterson (Labour) Runs a training consultancy. Medway councillor.
Richard Clein (Liberal Democrat) born 1971. Former constituency organiser for Malcolm Bruce 1995-1997 and BBC Radio Merseyside journalist (1998-2003), now associate director for a public affairs agency. 
Peter Harper (UKIP) born Aintree. Educated at Maghull High School. 2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 88864
Male: 47.8%
Female: 52.2%
Under 18: 21.4%
Over 60: 26.4%
Born outside UK: 2.7%
White: 98.6%
Asian: 0.5%
Mixed: 0.5%
Other: 0.4%
Christian: 87.2%
Full time students: 3.5%
Graduates 16-74: 20.8%
No Qualifications 16-74: 25.9%
Owner-Occupied: 87.9%
Social Housing: 6.8% (Council: 5.5%, Housing Ass.: 1.3%)
Privately Rented: 3.5%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 7.4%
Some photos and history of the area, from the superb Allerton Oak website.
http://www.allertonoak.com/merseyFlights/Liverpool.html
http://www.allertonoak.com/merseySights/NorthLiverpoolWT.html
http://www.allertonoak.com/merseySights/OutlyingAreasIB.html
http://www.allertonoak.com/merseySights/OutlyingAreasHA.html
http://www.allertonoak.com/merseySights/OutlyingAreasMH.html
Is there a more picturesque Labour constituency – outside of Scotland – I wonder?
And re Sefton’s Catholicism. Let’s not forget that Bill Esterton’s predecessor – Claire Curtis-Thomas – converted to Catholicism while the MP in 2003 – which did her absolutely no harm at all….
That was quite a rant Joe. I’m strongly pro-choice myself & hope you don’t regard me as a fascist.
We have had a lot of Catholic Labour candidates in my constituency who had pro-life views at least to some extent. The best-known of course was Keith Vaz.
No, of course not,
but I do think the balance needs to be re-addressed somewhat in this.
This pro-life thing is full of contradictions.
For a start I find it ridiculous how Justin Hinchcliffe, a very loudly proclaimed gay man, can promote himself as pro-life with any kind of straight face, given that taking pro-life to its logical conclusion believes that sex is for pro-creation only and that anything contradicting that, be it contraception, abortion, homosexuality or casual sex, is sinful. This might sound extreme but this is the heart of the philosophy against abortion in America.
It’s also weird that gay people, having suffered from discrimination, should seek to subject girls who want an abortion to the same kind of treatment. So that’s Justin.
I also find it strange how those who complain loudest whenever there’s a story in The Sun about a layabout family on benefits with 13 kids – ie right wing Tories – are those who are most likely to be pro life. Surely being pro life would mean one would welcome big families for their godly lack of contraception and abortion, and the fact that in the future it will be their British children will be wiping our bottoms in our care home rather than Somali immigrants.
Also pro lifers are often also pro capital punishment, again very odd.
Myself I think being pro life is fine in theory but in practice the negatives make it unworkable. Legal abortion on demand is a regrettable necessity.
I took it that Justin was probably pro “choice” –
that’s the way I read it.
I apologise if I’m wrong by the way.
Personally, I think the pro “choice” thing has gone too far,
although piling more legislation onto the Statute Book is another matter.
(e actually had a good period of government in 1996-97 because our rullers had to think very carefully before bringing legislation forward.
But the electorate thought otherwise).
‘We clearly have a default view amongs the politically correct facists that anyone who is pro-life is off their trolley’
I agree
The abortion laws in this country are a disgrace – and abortion, like the death penalty, is one of those issues than transcends left and right – a lot of left-wing Labour MPs (most notably George Galloway) are very strongly against it – just as a lot of right-wing Tory MPs (Andrew McCay, James Duddridge) are in favour and support massively increasing the 22-week limit
The good news is that the House of Commons might currentlyu have the numbers to vote for a cut to 20 or 18 weeks
195,296 of them in 2009.
Money I would rather spend on ill patients
or making sure old people get home helps.
Anyway, my last statement about it
as it’s not fair to get this in the way of the analysis of the seat.
Justin is radically pro-life, go read his blog.
The high number of abortions is an unfortunate side effect of a society where there’s little religion left, no shame in sex before marriage, no necessity for females to be chained to the kitchen sink and no shame in abortion itself.
I don’t think banning it or reducing its legal boundaries would achieve much, and its better to have it done above board than in a backstreet or at home in a hot bath.
The question of whether all this kind of stuff being on the NHS is right is another one. In many cases I think it shouldn’t be but it’s hard to moralise without being unfair to some deserving cases.
Also – without wanting to sound like Harriet Harperson – pro lifers are mostly male.
Females should have a greater say IMO as it is their bodies we are talking about, and they are in general much less strident about abortion than men as they have empathy with the messy practicalities of it all.
eg my wife is a US Hispanic and staunchly catholic, but moderately pro-choice.
“…pro lifers are mostly male”.
That depends on where you set the threshold for labelling someone as being a pro lifer. You may be correct regarding the issue of whether abortion should be available at all, but what polling evidence there is on the question of whether the current time limit for abortion should be reduced tends to suggest that women are more in favour of a reduction than men.
RodCrosby is correct re both Crosby and Bootle being very RC, as are parts of St Helens and the West of Scotland and Labour MPs in Bootle and Crosby (more recently) tend to be anti-abortion and euthenasia and anti-medical research, as was David now Lord Alton. Only 10% of the UK are RC but there are concentrations in West Belfast and parts of Glasgow and Manchester and London. Interestingly, parts of Liverpool such as Breckfield, Everton and Fazakerley are still 75% Protestant.
Kieran that’s an interesting point.
Thinking about it it might be hard to get enough heterosexual male MPs to vote to lower the abortion time limit given that they might need to avail their mistresses of that service in the future.
We may find that now a lower limit has a real chance of becoming law, some of the male MPs who supported it when it was a no-hoper due to the Labour parliamentary majority may mysteriously switch sides or abstain!