Bootle
Notional 2005 Results:
Labour: 25418 (69.5%)
Liberal Democrat: 6320 (17.3%)
Conservative: 2871 (7.8%)
Other: 1972 (5.4%)
Majority: 19098 (52.2%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 1580 (6.2%)
Labour: 19345 (75.5%)
Liberal Democrat: 2988 (11.7%)
UKIP: 1054 (4.1%)
Other: 655 (2.6%)
Majority: 16357 (63.8%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 2194 (8%)
Labour: 21400 (77.6%)
Liberal Democrat: 2357 (8.5%)
Other: 1643 (6%)
Majority: 19043 (69%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 3247 (8.5%)
Labour: 31668 (82.9%)
Liberal Democrat: 2191 (5.7%)
Referendum: 571 (1.5%)
Other: 546 (1.4%)
Majority: 28421 (74.4%)
Boundary changes:
Profile:
Current MP: Joe Benton(Labour) (more information at They work for you)
Candidates: James Murray (Liberal Democrat)
Paul Nuttall (UKIP) Former university lecturer. Assistant to John Whittaker MEP. Contested Bootle 2005.
2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 103758
Male: 47.1%
Female: 52.9%
Under 18: 26.2%
Over 60: 20.4%
Born outside UK: 2.1%
White: 98.7%
Asian: 0.2%
Mixed: 0.6%
Other: 0.4%
Christian: 85%
Full time students: 3%
Graduates 16-74: 10.6%
No Qualifications 16-74: 38.6%
Owner-Occupied: 58.8%
Social Housing: 31.1% (Council: 20.6%, Housing Ass.: 10.5%)
Privately Rented: 7.4%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 19.5%
Not only is it next door to Crosby but it annexed a ward (Church) from that constituency before the 1983 election. Its likely Williams had carried this area in the by-election and there would have been some residual support left over from that, although one ward is not enough on it’s own of course to account for 12,000 votes.
The Bootle seat which Andrew Bonar Law repreented included the whole of Crosby
Thanks, Pete. No wonder Bootle was Tory in 1911 then.
Crosby has large numbers of large late C19/early C20 terrace houses, in part because of the early electrification of the Liverpool to Southport railway in the first decade of the twentieth century. So Bonar Law’s electorate would have included considerable numbers of middle class commuting voters happily moved into brand new houses.
Some information on Bootle from Henry Pelling’s Social Geography of British Elections (published 1967):
“Considering that there were many dockers here and that the Irish element was strong in Bootle, the division was surprisingly firm on the Unionist side. This may be attributed to the fact that the Irish here even more than elsewhere were a constantly mobile population. But there was also a large proportion of outvoters – the freeholders of Liverpool, amounting to about a fifth of the electorate at the start of the period, and reckoned to be Conservative. The Liberals certainly considerably improved their proportion of the vote in 1906 and 1910, by which time the growth of the division had reduced the proportion of freeholders. But the Free Trade issue may also have been a factor among the middle-class inhabitants of Bootle itself.”
Conservative share of vote:
1885 – 63.1%
1886 – not contested
1892 – 59.4%
1895 – not contested
1900 – not contested
1906 – 51.1%
Jan 1910 – 52.9%
Dec 1910 – not contested
I agree with ‘Political Pete’ re UKIP finishing 2nd next time. Their candidate is now an MEP and may win the Derby ward if held on the same day too. He polled over 35% last year.