Knowsley North was a

borough constituency In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons. Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called " constituen ...

represented in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

from 1983 until 1997. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the

first past the post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

voting system.

History

The constituency was a safe seat for the Labour Party throughout its existence. Originally, it was represented by

Robert Kilroy-Silk Robert Michael Kilroy-Silk (born Robert Michael Silk; 19 May 1942) is an English former politician and broadcaster. After a decade as a university lecturer, he served as a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 1986. He left the ...

, who resigned in 1986 to pursue a media career. This resignation prompted a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

, which was won by

George Howarth Sir George Edward Howarth (born 29 June 1949) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Knowsley until 2024. He also served the seat's predecessors since being elected in a by-election in 1986, fi ...

Boundaries

The Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley wards of Cantril Farm, Cherryfield, Kirkby Central, Knowsley Park, Northwood, Park, Prescot East, Prescot West, Tower Hill, and Whitefield. The constituency covered the northern part of the

metropolitan borough A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of districts of England, local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan distr ...

of Knowsley, principally the town of

Kirkby Kirkby ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. The town, Historic counties of England, historically in Lancashire, has a size of is north of Huyton and north-east of Liverpool. The population in 2016 wa ...

. Following a review by the Boundary Commission for England in 1995, the constituency was expanded at the 1997 general election to form the new Knowsley North and Sefton East constituency.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 1980s

* Kilroy-Silk resigned on 1 October 1986, to pursue a media career.

Elections in the 1990s

Notes and references

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Sources

* ''Britain Votes/Europe Votes By-Election Supplement 1983-'', compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Research Services 1985) Parliamentary constituencies in Merseyside (historic) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1983 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1997 Politics of the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley