Wirral South MP Alison McGovern to stand for Birkenhead seat

Wirral South MP Alison McGovern is to be Labour's candidate for the Birkenhead constituency at the next general election.

She beat Birkenhead's serving Labour MP Mick Whitley for the candidacy, with him expressing "great sadness" to have lost out.

Ms McGovern thanked Labour members for choosing her.

Elected to represent Wirral South in 2010, Ms McGovern's seat is being abolished following a boundary review.

Part of Wirral South, the town of Bebington, will be subsumed into the Birkenhead constituency meaning that under Labour Party rules, Ms McGovern was able to challenge Mr Whitley.

On Twitter, Ms McGovern, shadow employment minister, praised Mr Whitley as a "committed trade union and hardworking MP", adding: "I know that Mick, like myself and all those who voted for us today, share one overriding ambition for both of our current constituencies and for the future Birkenhead: a Labour government."

She added: "I am sorry the Boundary Commission abolished our Wirral South constituency for the next election. But I do I want to again reassure my [current] constituents that I remain their MP and will continue to represent their interests until the moment they are included in their new constituencies."

Mr Whitley, elected in 2019, has criticised Labour's NEC for allowing the contest to go ahead.

He said: "I do not believe that anyone who has our party's best interests at heart could agree with a contest that pitted two sitting Labour MPs against each other."

Ms McGovern won the vote by members of the Birkenhead Constituency party (CLP) with 266 votes (59%) to Mr Whitley's 186 (41%).

Merseyside's Labour MPs have been reacting to the result, with Liverpool Riverside MP Kim Johnson saying: "I'm gutted. Mick Whitley is a friend of mine and we were elected to parliament at the same time.

"If it wasn't for him, parliament would have been a lonely place for me. He has done so much for Birkenhead."

Knowsley's George Howarth congratulated Alison McGovern, saying she would be "a strong voice for Birkenhead and an excellent MP".

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