Sefton Central

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.

2010 election candidates:
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.