The placeConstituency · North West · Electorate 72,838 · 2023 boundaries

Wirral West.

Labour Party MP Matthew Patrick holds the seat on 46.4% of the vote.

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Member of ParliamentMatthew Patrick · Labour Party
CouncilWirral
Boundary set2023
ONS codeE14001589
Electorate · 2024
72.8k
Registered to vote
2024 GE — winner
46.4%
Labour Party · +20.0pp over Con
Settlements
9
Largest: Heswall
Crime · per 1k pop · 3mo
12.9
data.police.uk · 12mo rolling
Dispatch
7 Jun 2026

Wirral peninsula towns, Labour-held, locally two-party

Wirral West occupies the north-western corner of the Wirral peninsula, an older and comfortably-off slice of Merseyside with a median age of 50 and more than two-fifths of residents degree-educated. It is a network of small and middling towns rather than a single dominant centre: Heswall is the largest at roughly 29,000 people, ahead of West Kirby, Bebington and Greasby, with the coastal settlements of Hoylake and Meols and a thin rural fringe completing the picture. The seat is almost entirely White on the Census measure and threads along the Dee estuary shoreline. All local services fall to a single body, Wirral Council, a metropolitan borough authority, which administers the seven wards lying within the constituency.

That single-council footing makes the local picture relatively legible, though the most recent ward contests now date to May 2023. Across the 21 most-recent ward results, the Conservatives held a narrow edge over Labour, taking twelve to Labour's nine, with the party split running broadly along the familiar lines -- the western coastal and Heswall wards leaning Conservative, the Upton, Pensby and Greasby wards leaning Labour. The parliamentary picture points the other way. Labour won the seat in 2024 on 46.4 per cent, some twenty points clear of the Conservatives on 26.3, having taken it more narrowly in 2019. The sitting member, Matthew Patrick, has held it for Labour since that contest.

On the figures available the seat looks comfortably Labour at Westminster while remaining genuinely two-party at ward level, a tension that leaves its direction-of-travel less settled than the general-election margin alone suggests. Recent local coverage has carried a largely administrative tenor, dominated by the council's strained finances and the mechanics of a boundary review reshaping its wards, with little in the way of a national profile. With ward control unsettled, finances tight and a wider council reorganisation under way, Wirral West reads as a Labour-held seat that is contested rather than safe at the local tier.

46.4%
Lab vote · 2024 GE
1
Council overlapping the seat
7
Wards · 21 councillors
§ 01The local picture — wards.7 wards · 21 councillors

Ward-level direction-of-travel: who controls what, who flipped recently, who holds the line.

WardLatest winnerVotesCouncilLast cycle
Clatterbridge(3 seats)Povall · Cameron · Jordan6,036Wirral LabMay 2023
Greasby, Frankby and Irby(3 seats)Jenkinson · McManus · Skillicorn7,458Wirral LabMay 2023
Heswall(3 seats)Hodson · Davies · Hodson6,735Wirral LabMay 2023
Hoylake and Meols(3 seats)Gardner · Booth · Cox6,523Wirral LabMay 2023
Pensby and Thingwall(3 seats)Ainsworth · Sullivan · Pitt6,051Wirral LabMay 2023
Upton(3 seats)Robinson · Williams · Bennett6,296Wirral LabMay 2023
West Kirby and Thurstaston(3 seats)Green · Johnson · Mountney5,563Wirral LabMay 2023

Source · Democracy Club · DCLEAPIL v1.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

§ 02Settlements.9 named places

The seat’s population is concentrated in Heswall (29,050), with West Kirby (13,378) as the second pole. Total population across named built-up areas: 88,367.

city 8,992large-town 40,454town 34,570village 4,351

Source · ONS Built-Up Areas · Census 2021

SettlementPop.Class
Heswall29,050large town
West Kirby13,378town
Bebington11,404large town
Greasby9,422town
Birkenhead8,992city
Hoylake5,966town
Showing 6 of 9·All 9 settlements
§ 03Demographics.Census 2021 · vs national avg

Headline indicators.

IndicatorLocalNationalΔ
Employment rate51.5%57.1%-10%
Owner-occupied80.4%63.1%+27%
Private rented11.8%20.0%-41%
Social rented7.8%16.8%-54%

Ethnicity.

White96.2%
Asian1.7%
Black0.3%
Mixed1.4%
Other0.4%

Source · Census 2021

Population by age & sexCensus 2021 · 18 bands · click to expand
Male 47.9% Female 52.2% Median seat
MaleAgeFemale
85+
80-84
75-79
70-74
65-69
60-64
55-59
50-54
45-49
40-44
35-39
30-34
25-29
20-24
16-19
10-15
5-9
0-4

Source · Census 2021 (ONS) · % of usual residents; tick marks the median seat per band

§ 04Local economy.Income · tax · businesses · schools
Median income
£30,200
HMRC SPI · 2024
Mean income
£41,000
HMRC SPI · 2024
Businesses
2,865
VAT/PAYE-registered
Schools
38
26 primary · 5 secondary
GCSE pass
68.7%
Attainment 8: 48.0

Income tax contribution.

Total income tax£358m
Taxpayers52,000
Median per taxpayer£3,110
Mean per taxpayer£6,940

Source · HMRC SPI · ±8% confidence

Where the money flows back in.

For council finance & suppliers

This constituency is served by Wirral. Each council’s service spend, peer rank and supplier list lives on its own page — open from the meta block above or the compass strip below.

For household tax breakdown

Move the income slider on My place to see income tax, NI, VAT and council tax against your earnings — the household lens.

§ 05Recorded crime.data.police.uk · 12-month rolling

Headline rate.

Per 1k pop · 3mo
12.9
-38% vs national
Monthly avg / 1k
4.3
12-month rolling
Top category
Violence & sexual offences
43% of recorded crime

By category.

Violence & sexual offences5.5
Anti-social behaviour1.9
Public order1.3
Criminal damage & arson0.9
Shoplifting0.9
Other theft0.7
Drugs0.4

Source · data.police.uk · 3-month rate per 1,000 pop

Showing 7 of 15·All 15 categories — full monthly trend & settlement breakdown
§ 06Election history.5 contests · created on 2023 boundaries

2024 — full result.

CandidateVotes%
Matthew PatrickWONLab23,15646.4
Jenny JohnsonCon13,15826.3
Ken FergusonRef6,42212.9
Gail JenkinsonGrn4,1608.3
Peter ReisdorfLD3,0556.1

Turnout 49,951

Prior contests.

YearWinner%
2019Margaret GreenwoodLab48.2
2017Margaret GreenwoodLab54.3
2015Margaret GreenwoodLab45.1
2010McVey, EstherCon42.5
Sources, methods & last update
Method The dispatch paragraphs are AI-generated from the public sources listed below. Every figure links to its source. If we’re wrong, please tell us — corrections within 48 hours.
BoundariesONS Open Geography Portal
2023 boundary review
Wards & councilsLGBCE · Democracy Club
DCLEAPIL v1.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
SettlementsONS Built-Up Areas
Census 2021
DemographicsONS · Nomis · Census 2021
National avg over 575 seats
Income & taxHMRC SPI
±8% confidence
SchoolsDfE · attainment data
Crimedata.police.uk
LSOA-aggregated · rolling 12mo
ElectionsElectoral Commission