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UK Parliament - Lancashire West

RACE DETAILS

Parents

> United Kingdom > England > North West > North West > Lancashire West

Office

Parliament

Honorific

Member of Parliament - Abbr: MP

Type

General Election

Filing Deadline

April 19, 2005 - 12:00pm Central

Polls Open

May 05, 2005 - 01:00am Central

Polls Close

May 05, 2005 - 05:00pm Central

Term Start

May 17, 2005 - 12:00pm

Term End

May 17, 2010 - 11:00am

Contributor

Wishful Thinking

Last Modified

RBH May 07, 2010 09:49pm

Data Sources

[Link]

Description

Lancashire West was created in 1983 when the old Ormskirk seat was split into two, forming this seat and Knowsley North. Harold Wilson had been Ormskirk's MP from 1945 to 1950 before moving to Huyton and its last representative was Robert Kilroy-Silk who then moved to the safe Knowsley North before embarking on his television, and later UKIP, career. The seat is made up of two basic areas - the new town of Skelmersdale, a Merseyside overspill with strong Labour tendencies, and Ormskirk which is more inclined to the Tories, especially in Aughton Park and Aughton Town. There are also the smaller settlements of Burscough and Parbold. The whole constituency borders Southport and Formby to the east and Kirkby and Maghull to the south. Skelmersdale has not been considered one of the more successful new towns and a large number of houses stand empty. Skelmersdale has also had a tradition of Labour political in-fighting and deselections. These reached a peak just before the last general election and consequently a group of Labour councillors broke away to form their own party "West Lancashire First" and Labour lost control of the council. Tory Ken Hind was the first MP for this new seat in 1983. He held on for two elections until his defeat in 1992 by the current Labour MP, Colin Pickthall. His majority soared to 17,000 in 1997 but virtually halved four years later.