In the 1980s Liverpoolís post-war decline gathered pace - manifest not least in the cityís shrinking population - falling from 510,000 to 450,000 between 1981 and 1991. Some wards lost half their residents or more. This depopulation cost Liverpool one of its six parliamentary seats in the 1995 redistribution. Mossley Hill, the sole non-Labour seat in the city, fell victim to the Commissionís knife. Geographically central, it was the most obvious choice for abolition.
Mossley Hill was divided between 3 constituencies. Aigburth and Smithdown wards were subsumed by the usual Labour stronghold of Liverpool Riverside. Grassendale, a traditional Liberal Democrat ward, was transferred into Garston, a normally safe Labour seat. The remaining wards of Church and Picton joined the bulk of the former Broadgreen seat in the newly redrawn Wavertree constituency.
The new seat pitted Liberal Democrat David Alton with 25,000 former Mossley Hill electors against Labourís Jane Kennedy who had won Broadgreen in 1992 and brought some 47,000 electors with her into Wavertree. However, after Alton announced his retirement in 1995, the Liberal Democrats were powerless to prevent Jane Kennedy winning by a convincing margin.