Wirral West general election 2024 candidates

Edward Barnes

27 June 2024 at 10:14 am·1-min read

Low sunlight sparkles on West Kirby Marine lake, Wirral. — -Credit: (Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)

Wirral West was once considered a bellwether seat but that all changed in 2015.

That year, Labour won the seat with Margaret Greenwood defeating Conservative MP Esther McVey despite the party losing the general election. This bucked a trend since 1983 where the seat always elected an MP from the party that won the election.

Since then, it has been held by Labour but now that Ms Greenwood has stood down as MP, the field is wide open with five candidates putting themselves forward.

The seat has changed too with Conservative voting areas Heswall and Clatterbridge joining the constituency after boundary changes which could swing things in their favour. According to political forecaster Electoral Calculus, they think the Conservatives would have won the seat in 2015 and in 2019 under its new boundaries with Labour only winning it in 2017.

However this time around, their latest poll predicts Labour have a 99% chance of winning with 54.1% of the vote while the Conservatives would get 21%. In 2019, Electoral Calculus said they would have won with 45.5% if the new boundaries had been in place based on votes across all council wards in the seat.

A debate with all candidates is also due to be held on June 27 at West Kirby Grammar School. Five candidates are standing. These are:

Ken Ferguson (Reform UK)

Gail Jenkinson (Green Party)

Jenny Johnson (Conservative and Unionist Party)

Matthew Patrick (Labour Party)

Peter Timothy Clifford Reisdorf (Liberal Democrats)

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