Liverpool Riverside

Liverpool Riverside is an urban constituency in Merseyside. It covers the centre of the city of Liverpool and the neighbourhoods of Vauxhall, Kirkdale, Everton, Anfield, Toxteth and Dingle. Liverpool is a large port city with a history of slave trading and importation of goods for Lancashire's industry. The city underwent economic decline in the 1970s as the docks and manufacturing industries declined in importance, but has experienced regeneration in the 21st century. The Liverpool Riverside constituency contains the home stadiums of Liverpool F.C. and Everton F.C., and has a large student population as the location of the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, which together have around 57,000 students. This constituency is highly-deprived; the city centre has average levels of wealth but the surrounding neighbourhoods fall within the top 10% most-deprived areas in England. The average house price is lower than the rest of North West England and less than half the national average. In general, residents of Liverpool Riverside are young, unmarried, well-educated and have very low rates of homeownership. Household income is low and a high proportion of residents work in accommodation, food and the public sector. The child poverty rate is more than double the UK-wide figure and a high percentage of residents claim unemployment benefits. White people made up 74% of the population at the 2021 census and Asians were the largest ethnic minority group at 9%. The constituency has large Chinese and Arab communities. At the local city council, almost all seats in the constituency are represented by the Labour Party. Voters in Liverpool Riverside strongly supported remaining in the European Union in the 2016 referendum; an estimated 63% voted to remain compared to the nationwide figure of 48%. ==History==

;Creation Liverpool Riverside was created in 1983, merging most of the old Liverpool Scotland Exchange and Liverpool Toxteth constituencies. A provisional recommendation by the Boundary Commission was for the name Liverpool Abercromby, dropped during the local consultations, during which an alternative name of Liverpool Cathedrals was also proposed. ;Results of the winning party The area has been held by the Labour Party since the 1964 election (including predecessor seats); 1983—1997 by Robert Parry (ex-MP for Scotland Exchange, from 1974), 1997—2019 by Louise Ellman, and 2019—date by Kim Johnson. The 2017 result made the seat the 3rd safest seat by percentage of majority. ;Results of other parties The 2005 general election saw much more than the national average swing (+8.1%) to the Liberal Democrat candidate (compared with 3.4% nationwide), however Labour's candidate won more than double that share of the vote, scoring 57%. In the same election the area was one of several urban seats in which the Green Party retained its deposit by its candidate scoring just over 5% of the vote. The last time until 2017 that the Conservatives fielded a candidate who achieved second place was in 1992. That party took third place in 2015 behind the highest polling to date for any candidate from the Green Party across Merseyside. Despite the Conservatives managing to come second in the seat in 2017, this was significantly overshadowed by the fact Labour won over 84% of the vote and a majority of 35,947 (74.8%), the biggest margin by both popular vote and percentage majority the party has ever won in the seat. ;Turnout In the 2001 and 2005 general elections it had the lowest turnout of all constituencies of the UK. In a contest where positions of runner-up candidates greatly changed, turnout exceeded 62% in the 2015 election. This slightly increased to 62.9% in 2017, which remains below the average (the 2017 election had a total turnout of 68.8%), but significantly less so than has previously been the case in the constituency. ==Boundaries==

Historic 1983–1997: The City of Liverpool wards of Abercromby, Arundel, Dingle, Everton, Granby, and Vauxhall. 1997–2010: The City of Liverpool wards of Abercromby, Aigburth, Arundel, Dingle, Everton, Granby, Smithdown, and Vauxhall. 2010–2024: The City of Liverpool wards of Central, Greenbank, Kirkdale, Mossley Hill, Princes Park, Sefton Park, Riverside, and St Michael's. Current Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the constituency was defined as being composed of the following wards of the City of Liverpool as they existed on 1 December 2020: • Anfield; Central; Everton; Kirkdale; Princes Park; Riverside. ''The seat was subject to significant change, with the transfer of the (former) wards of Greenbank, Mossley Hill and St Michael's to Liverpool Wavertree, offset by the addition of the Anfield and Everton wards from Liverpool Walton.'' Liverpool was subject to a comprehensive local government boundary review which came into effect in May 2023. As a result, the new constituency boundaries do not align with the revised ward boundaries. The constituency now comprises the following wards or part wards of the City of Liverpool from the 2024 general election: • Anfield (most); Brownlow Hill; Canning (most); City Centre North; City Centre South; Dingle; Edge Hill (very small part); Everton East (most); Everton North; Everton West; Festival Gardens (most); Kensington & Fairfield (small part); Kirkdale East; Kirkdale West; Princes Park (most); Toxteth; Tuebrook Breckside Park (part); Vauxhall; Waterfront North; Waterfront South. The constituency is one of five covering the city of Liverpool. It covers the central area of the city, including famous sights of the city such as the Royal Liver Building and Albert Dock. Neighbourhoods include Aigburth, Canning, Chinatown, Dingle, Kirkdale, Part of Mossley Hill, St Michael's Hamlet, Toxteth and Vauxhall. It contains the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University. ==Members of Parliament==

Elections in the 2020s Elections in the 2010s {{Election box begin |title=General election 2015: Liverpool Riverside Elections in the 2000s The turnout compared to the 2001 election had risen by 7.4% to 41.5% (an above average increase). However, this was still the lowest throughout the United Kingdom which averaged 61.3% with a 2.1% increase. In the 2001 election it had a turnout of 34.1% which was the lowest of the United Kingdom. The average turnout in that year was 59.2%. Elections in the 1990s Elections in the 1980s == See also ==