Blundellsands goes into Bootle in boundary shake-up plan

BLUNDELLSANDS will become part of Bootle, Walton will take in parts of Kirkby and Prescot while Liverpool will essentially lose one of its five MPs, under new proposals announced by the Boundary Commission today.

Voters in three city wards will be transported into constituencies across the city boundary.

The boundaries of the remaining four city constituencies have been significantly redrawn, paving the way for a political bun fight between the existing five MPs.

Stephen TwiggThe Liverpool five – Luciana Berger, Maria Eagle, Louise Ellman, Steve Rotheram and Stephen Twigg - are all strong personalities and political big hitters, so who will go is anybody’s guess.

Culture year Lord Mayor Steve Rotheram sees his current Walton constituency dramatically altered, and crossing the city boundary to take in the Netherton and Orrell ward in Sefton as well as parts of Kirkby and Prescot.

Walton is currently the safest political seat in the country, but the shake-up will end Rotheram’s boast of having the only constituency in the country to include two premiership football clubs.

That move will have a major impact on another political heavy, Knowsley’s George Howarth.

Garston and Halewood, currently held by Maria Eagle, disappears to be consumed by a new Huyton and Halewood constituency.The new patch will include Speke, Garston and Belle Vale.

Louise Ellman’s Riverside constituency will be dramatically altered. The patch will stretch from Everton to Lark Lane, but will encroach well into the city.

Wavertree's Luciana BergerWavertree, currently held by Westminster pin-up Luciana Berger will include Mossley Hill, currently part of Louse Ellman’s beat, along with Cressington and Hunts Cross.

West Derby, currently held by Labour’s Stephen Twigg, will now include Anfield, as well as nudging over the boundary to take in Stockbridge Village.

Joe Benton’s Bootle constituency will spread into Liverpool to take in Kirkdale, as well as Crosby and up to posh Blundellsands.

One of the biggest battles will be in Wirral where Wirral South and Wirral West disappear.  Both seats were won in 2010 by rookie MPs, Conservative Esther McVey in Wirral West  while in Wirral South, Labour’s Alison McGovern was the victor by a narrow margin.

McGovern's granddad, Peter McGovern, penned that famous folksy anthem, In My Liverpool Home.

The dog’s dinner constituency will be a new cross-Mersey constituency called Mersey Banks, lovely name but the winner likely to need a hovercraft. It will stretch from Bromborough in Wirral, through Eastham, Frodsham and Helsby, but then taking in the north of river outposts of Hale Village and the Widnes ward of Ditton.