Liverpool West Derby returned Bob Wareing to a third term in 1997 with a majority of over 25,000. Essentially Liverpool’s council estate seat, West Derby is centred on the north eastern edge of the city and includes Norris Green in Pirrie ward, an inter-war development, and post-war Gillmoss and Dovecot.
The setting for Brookside, Channel 4’s long-running soap about the trials and tribulations of the occupants of a Liverpool cul-de-sac, is to be found within the constituency. The new developments around Croxteth Hall of which Brookside Close is a typical example, as well as West Derby village and in Sandfield Park are owner-occupied but even these wards have not recently voted Conservative.
Recent election results and a high unemployment rate of 8.9% give the impression that this has long been a Labour stronghold. In fact, West Derby was a Conservative seat right up until 1964. The Conservative’s grip on the seat was fatally weakened by housing redevelopment and the decline of the Orange Protestant vote in the area. But Labour has had some trouble in the constituency. Eric Ogden MP defected to the SDP in the early 1980s and promptly lost his seat.