Huyton (UK Parliament constituency)
| Huyton | |
|---|---|
| Former County constituency for the House of Commons |
|
| 1950–1983 | |
| Number of members | one |
| Replaced by | Knowsley South, Knowsley North, St Helens South and St Helens North |
| Created from | Widnes (north part of) |
Huyton was a UK constituency. Created in 1950, it was centred on Huyton in Lancashire (later Merseyside), North West England, just beyond the borders of the city of Liverpool. Its only MP was frontbench Labour politician Harold Wilson who while representing the seat becoming party leader in 1963 and Prime Minister from 1964 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1976.
The constituency was dissolved under 1983 boundary changes — largely replaced by Knowsley South. This coincided with Wilson's retirement from parliament.
The Liberals ran a candidate in the constituency on its creation in 1950 but did not run one again until 24 years later in 1974, by which time Wilson had become Leader of the Labour Party and served two terms as Prime Minister. The party finished in third place in all the elections it contested in this seat. Wilson achieved an absolute majority save in the first two elections, the runner up party always a Conservative party candidate, polled best in 1951 — 48.7% of the vote.
The Widnes seat was in the early 20th century a marginal seat, in the immediately preceding elections to 1950 won by the two largest parties, alternating.
The seat was more suburban at a time of relatively low employment in the sub-region in the 1950s. Council housing and private sector construction of relatively smaller homes by the 1980s complimented the overwhelmingly semi-detached housing stock, downgrading the local housing stock during the seat's existence while solving the problem of chronic housing shortages in the city itself; a time when Merseyside expanded by a programme of home building and motorway building within the confines of Huyton and its suburbs moved further out particularly to the Wirral and other areas on the fringe of the new metropolitan county. The M57 was completed bisecting the area in 1974, so also the M62.
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