From 1885 to 1935, the constituency returned Conservative MPs, with its most notable MP being Conservative Party leader Bonar Law from 1911 to 1918, when property qualifications for the vote were abolished. Bonar Law would later serve as UK prime minister from 1922 to 1923, though at that point he no longer represented Bootle in the House of Commons. James Burnie of the Liberal Party held the seat from 1922 to 1924, and the seat was briefly held by John Kinley from the Labour Party from 1929 to 1931 and became a Conservative–Labour marginal seat in the 1930s when the mainstream Labour party formed the National Government. The Labour Party has held it continuously since the 1945 general election; this period saw two decades of steep decline in the profitability of Liverpool Docks, manufacturing and shipbuilding, which employed many constituents. At the three general elections from 1997, Bootle was the safest seat for any party in the United Kingdom by percentage of majority.
The second by-election, held on 8 November 1990, was won by the Labour candidate, Joe Benton. Benton retained Bootle at the next four general elections with large majorities. At the 2005 general election, the seat was the safest seat by percentage of majority and had the highest winning share of the vote.[3] In June 2014, Benton announced that he would retire at the 2015 general election.
The 2015 result made the seat the fifth-safest of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority (with a winning vote share of 74.5% and a majority of 63.6%).[4][5] Bootle remained a safe seat into the 2020s, becoming the safest seat for Labour by this metric in 2024 (despite a decrease of the vote share by 10.7%) with a winning vote share of 68.7%; this gave Labour a 56.5% majority over Reform UK.
Constituency profile
Though the seat has some small neighbourhoods with middle-to-high incomes, residents generally have some of the lowest UK incomes and there is a higher-than-average proportion of social housing.[6] The Bootle constituency has long been one of the safest seats in the United Kingdom and since 1945, has given a majority of votes cast to the Labour Party at each general election. Since 1964, the size of the majority (by vote share) has been in double digits; since 1992, it has been over 50%, peaking at 74.4% in the 1997 Blair landslide election. However, the Labour vote share was at its highest in 2017, when Peter Dowd received 84% of votes cast. Both the size of the majority and the share of the vote represent an unbeaten record for this constituency.
Boundaries
Map of boundaries from 2010
Bootle in Lancashire, boundaries used 1974-83
1885–1918: The Boroughs of Bootle-cum-Linacre and Liverpool, the parishes of Childwall, Fazakerley, Walton-on-the-Hill, and Wavertree, and parts of the parishes of Toxteth Park and West Derby.
1918–1950: The County Borough of Bootle.
1950–1955: The County Borough of Bootle, and the Urban District of Litherland.
1974–1983: The County Borough of Bootle, and the Urban District of Litherland.[8]
1983–1997: The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton wards of Church, Derby, Ford, Linacre, Litherland, Netherton, Orrell, and St Oswald.
1997–2010: As above less Church ward.
2010–present: The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton wards of Church, Derby, Ford, Linacre, Litherland, Netherton and Orrell, St Oswald, and Victoria.
Boundary changes that came into force as a result of the 2010 general election being called saw the constituency grow to also include parts of the old Crosby constituency, with the electoral wards of Church and Victoria being added. Although these areas are more affluent than some parts of Bootle, it has not made the seat any less safe for Labour.
Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;
