EVER since the cross-river constituency of Halton was created in 1983, it has been safe Labour territory.

It would take a truly seismic upheaval to stop sitting Labour MP Derek Twigg, first elected in 1997 as successor to Gordon Oakes, being returned to the Commons next week.

Much of the real interest in the seat centres around the fight for third place.

In the 1992 election, the Tories were over 10,000 votes ahead of the Lib- Dems, but that has been steadily whittled down to just 985 votes in 2005 and the Lib-Dems have their sights firmly on getting their man, Frank Harasiwka, in second place ahead of his Tory rival Ben Jones. Harasiwka is an experienced Lib-Dem hopeful, having fought the Bolton South East seat a number of times.

A logistics manager and chartered secretary with an MBA, he lives in Bolton but has worked in Halton for a number of years.

Ben Jones, of the Conservatives, is also a north-westerner, having been born in Liverpool, and brought up in St Helens.

Trained as a management consultant and now a medical regulator, he is fighting his first Parliamentary election.

Labour’s campaign has centred on job creation in the borough, with the Tesco/Stobart warehousing and distribution development to open in July with the creation of 750 new jobs.

But the biggest job creator in Halton in the next few years is likely to be the second Mersey Crossing, the new road bridge awaiting the green light from Whitehall.