| St. Helens North | |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 1983 |
| Type: | County |
| Previous: | St Helens, Newton, Ince, Ormskirk and Huyton[1] |
| Electorate: | 76,082 (2023)[2] |
| Mp: | David Baines |
| Party: | Labour |
| Region: | England |
| County: | Merseyside |
| European: | North West England |
| Towns: | St Helens, Billinge, Earlestown, Haydock, Newton-le-Willows and Rainford |
| Elects Howmany: | One |
St. Helens North is a constituency created in 1983 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by the Labour Party's David Baines since 2024.
1983–2010: The Metropolitan Borough of St Helens wards of Billinge and Seneley Green, Blackbrook, Broad Oak, Haydock, Moss Bank, Newton East, Newton West, Rainford, and Windle.
2010–2022: As above, subject to changes in the local authority ward structure, with Parr replacing Broad Oak, Newton East renamed Newton, and Newton West becoming Earlestown.
2022–present: Following a further local government boundary review which came into effect in May 2022,[3] [4] the Newton and Earlestown wards reverted back to Newton-le-Willows East and Newton-le-Willows West respectively. The constituency now comprises the following wards of the Borough of St Helens:
The 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which was based on the ward structure in place at 1 December 2020, left the boundaries unchanged.[6]
The constituency is one of two covering the Metropolitan Borough, the other being St Helens South and Whiston. It includes the north of the town of St Helens, and Billinge, Seneley Green, Earlestown, Blackbrook, Haydock, Newton-le-Willows and Rainford.
The constituency was first won by the former Newton MP John Evans and from 1997 to 2015 by David Watts, a former council leader. His successor was Connor McGinn. In December 2022, McGinn was suspended by the Labour Party but continued to sit as an independent MP until he stood down at the 2024 general election, when the seat was won by Labour's David Baines.
The seat includes the large town of St Helens, noted by visitors for its successful rugby league side and the nearby horseracing racecourse at Haydock Park. Despite these prominent sports venues, workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 higher than the national average of 3.8%, at 4.7% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian, which was close to the Greater Manchester and Merseyside average but higher than the regional average of 4.4%.[7] With the exception of the Conservative area of Rainford, virtually every other ward in the seat is safely Labour.
| Election | Member | Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | John Evans | Labour | ||
| 1997 | Dave Watts | Labour | ||
| 2015 | Conor McGinn | Labour | ||
| 2022 | Independent | |||
| 2024 | David Baines | Labour | ||