| Knowsley | |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 2010 |
| Type: | Borough |
| Previous: | Knowsley South, Knowsley North and Sefton East |
| Electorate: | 71,228 (2023) [1] |
| Mp: | Anneliese Midgley |
| Party: | Labour Party (UK) |
| Towns: | Huyton, Kirkby, Knowsley, Roby |
| Region: | England |
| County: | Merseyside |
| European: | North West England |
| Elects Howmany: | One |
Knowsley is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Anneliese Midgley of the Labour Party. .
The constituency mainly consists of low-income social housing and former social housing built to decant the residents displaced by post-war slum clearance in Liverpool. It includes Huyton to the south (once represented by Prime Minister Harold Wilson) and Kirkby to the north. Between them is the green space of Knowsley Hall and Park, the ancestral home of the Earls of Derby and the site of Knowsley Safari Park. In 2010, The Guardian summarised the area as "One of the most deprived areas in the country. The new parliamentary constituency folds in Knowsley North and Knowsley South."[2]
The constituency voted to leave the European Union in 2016.
Created for the 2010 general election (during the Boundary Commission for England's Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies[3]), it was believed to present the safest seat in the country, with an estimated Labour majority of 24,333 votes.[4] . The area returned the second highest share of the vote seen by a candidate for the Labour Party, of 70.9%, behind the 72.0% achieved in Liverpool Walton. The same ranking of results nationally by percentage majority occurred in 2015,[5] when it became the safest seat in the country in absolute terms, beating East Ham by 403 votes.[6]
It ranked foremost by party majority in 2017, where it was followed directly by East Ham and 28 other seats won by Labour candidates, after which followed North East Hampshire. It achieved the highest majority for any British Member of Parliament since the advent of universal suffrage, with Labour winning with a majority of 42,214 votes, surpassing the 36,230-vote majority held by then-Conservative Prime Minister John Major in his Huntingdon constituency in 1992.
On its creation, the seat was won by George Howarth, who had served as MP for the predecessor seats of Knowsley North (1986–1997) and Knowsley North and Sefton East (1997–2010). On his retirement for the 2024 general election, he was succeeded by Anneliese Midgley on a reduced majority over Reform UK of 50.9%.
The new constituency covered a large part of the metropolitan borough, main settlements being Huyton and Kirkby. It replaced most of the previous Knowsley South constituency, as well as the parts of Knowsley North and Sefton East in the Knowsley borough. Distant parts from the centre of the metropolitan borough were covered by the new St Helens South and Whiston and Garston and Halewood constituencies.
The seat contained the following electoral wards:
Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which came into effect for the 2024 United Kingdom general election, the constituency is composed of the following wards of the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley (as they existed on 1 December 2020):
After allowing for changes to ward names and boundaries, the constituency was reduced in size to bring the electorate within the permitted range by transferring the Page Moss and Swanside wards to Liverpool West Derby.
| Election | Member | Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | George Howarth | Labour | ||
| 2024 | Anneliese Midgley | Labour | ||
This was the largest numerical Labour majority at the 2019 general election.[9]
* Served as an MP in the 2005–2010 Parliament