1983–1997: The District of West Lancashire wards of Aughton Park, Aughton Town Green, Bickerstaffe, Birch Green, Burscough, Derby, Digmoor, Downholland, Halsall, Hesketh-with-Becconsall, Knowsley, Lathom, Moorside, Newburgh, North Meols, Rufford, Scarisbrick, Scott, Skelmersdale North, Skelmersdale South, Tanhouse, Tarleton, Upholland North, and Upholland South. 1997–2010: The District of West Lancashire wards of Aughton Park, Aughton Town Green, Bickerstaffe, Birch Green, Burscough, Derby, Digmoor, Downholland, Halsall, Knowsley, Lathom, Moorside, Newburgh, Parbold, Scarisbrick, Scott, Skelmersdale North, Skelmersdale South, Tanhouse, Upholland North, Upholland South, and Wrightington. 2010–present: The District of West Lancashire wards of Ashurst, Aughton and Downholland, Aughton Park, Bickerstaffe, Birch Green, Burscough East, Burscough West, Derby, Digmoor, Halsall, Knowsley, Moorside, Newburgh, Parbold, Scarisbrick, Scott, Skelmersdale North, Skelmersdale South, Tanhouse, Upholland, and Wrightington. The constituency boundaries remained unchanged. The constituency covers the borough of the same name except for the northern parishes, which are in the South Ribble constituency. The main towns in the constituency are the historic market town of Ormskirk and the new town of Skelmersdale. The third largest settlement is Burscough which is also surrounded by rural townships and villages and is close to the resort of Southport, just outside the modern administrative county.
History
The seat was established under the third periodic review of Westminster constituencies of 1983 following the first such review, after the Representation of the People Act 1918, in 1945. The new seat took in parts of Ormskirk and Ince, both abolished by that point. ;Political history Both forerunner seats were last represented by Labour MPs, with Ince having been served by only four such members since 1906. However, Ormskirk had a mixed and longer history as a more marginal seat. The seat's first member, Ken Hind, held the seat for two terms as a Conservative, winning the first election in the landslide Conservative result of 1983. In 1992, the seat was won by Colin Pickthall of the Labour Party who then gained a majority of 17,119 votes in 1997 and was succeeded by Rosie Cooper in 2005. The 2010 result was more marginal, with a 9.0% majority, but was not within the 50 most narrowly won seats for Cooper's party.
Constituency profile
As outlined in geography in the boundaries section above, the seat is primarily green-buffered settlements. West Lancashire is home to a significant proportion of those working at managerial and professional levels and an above average retired age quotient; as such, the local economy is allied to the international successes of nearby industrial and world trading sectors – primarily Liverpool and its trading estates in Merseyside, as well as the economy of Greater Manchester. The new town of Skelmersdale is strongly Labour, whereas Ormskirk and the surrounding rural and agricultural towns and villages are more inclined to vote Conservative. Since 2012, both jurisdictions have seen UKIP making substantial electoral gains. Although UKIP only had paper candidates in Aughton and Ormskirk in the 2010 general election, they finished second behind Labour in two Skelmersdale council elections, as well as second behind only the Conservatives in Aughton. Workless claimants who were registered jobseekers were in November 2012 lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 3.5% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.
1: After nominations were closed, Sen was suspended from UKIP after sending an allegedly anti-semitic tweet to Liverpool Wavertree Labour candidate Luciana Berger. His name still appeared on ballot papers with the UKIP party name.
