Prominent members In the 19th century, the constituency was represented by
George Nathaniel Curzon, who later became the Viceroy of India. Trial barrister
Edward Marshall Hall represented the seat from 1900 to 1906, while
Sir John Brunner, 2nd Baronet held the seat from 1923 until 1924.
Robert Hudson held the seat from 1931 to 1952. During
World War II he was the
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. He was made a viscount in 1952.
Political history Until 2024, the constituency had been a
Liberal or
Conservative seat throughout its history, and
marginal for much of that time. It changed hands 11 times between the parties after it was created in 1885, with nine Conservative MPs and eight Liberal or Liberal Democrat MPs in its history. During the nadir of the
Liberal Party, from the 1930s to the 1960s, the constituency became a safe
Conservative seat, with absolute majorities from 1931 until 1970 inclusive. Former
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was the
Labour Party candidate for the seat in
1966 and came in second place. With the revival the Liberal Party's fortunes in the early 1970s, elections became close contests once again. The constituency changed hands in the
1987 general election, when it was won by
Ronnie Fearn of the Liberal Party, for the
SDP–Liberal Alliance, shortly before the two parties merged to form the
Liberal Democrats. Fearn had contested the seat unsuccessfully for the Liberals throughout the 1970s. Fearn lost the seat to the Conservatives'
Matthew Banks at the
1992 election, one of the few Conservative gains at that election, only to regain it at the
1997 election. The Liberal Democrats held the seat, under
John Pugh (after Fearn stood down) in 2001 until 2017. The seat was one of the eight Liberal Democrat seats that survived its national vote share collapse at the
2015 general election, although there was a higher-than-average drop in the Liberal Democrats' vote share. Pugh opted not to re-contest the seat in the
2017 general election, at which it returned to the Conservatives, the only seat the Tories gained from the Liberal Democrats in 2017 (aside from
Richmond Park, which they had gained at
a 2016 by-election). In the
2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union, the
Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, of which the constituency is a part, voted to remain in the European Union by 51.9%. Given its demography, it is estimated that Southport voted to remain by 54%. In
2019, a resurgent Labour vote pushed the Liberal Democrats into third place for the first time since 1966 with the seat becoming a Tory-Labour marginal. Labour won the seat from the Conservatives in
2024, making it the first time Labour has held the seat, as well as the first time Labour has held every seat in
Merseyside. ==Constituency profile==