TWO of the country’s youngest MPs will represent Merseyside following the election of Wavertree’s Luciana Berger and Wirral South’s Alison McGovern, both 28, writes Post political reporter Marc Waddington.

But the margins of the Labour victory stood in marked contrast, with Miss Berger securing an increased majority of 7,167, while Miss McGovern scraped in with a slender majority of 531 – 1.3%.

Nonetheless, her win will be hailed as one of the results of the election by Labour, given that it was widely anticipated the Conservatives would take the Wirral South seat, after Labour MP Ben Chapman’s stood down following the MPs’ expenses row.

Across Merseyside, the Labour vote came out strong. Former Lord Mayor Steve Rotheram was returned as the MP with the highest share of the vote of any MP in the country, a robust 71.96% share of the turnout.

It means Walton officially replaces Knowsley as the safest Labour seat in the UK.

Maria Eagle won the newly-created constituency of Garston and Halewood for Labour, with a 16,877 majority and a 59.9% share of the total available vote.

Liverpool Riverside was retained, as predicted, by Labour’s Louise Ellman, who secured a majority of 14,173, or 36.5%.

And the election also saw the return to Parliament of “giant killer” Stephen Twigg, who won in Liverpool West Derby with an 18,467 majority of 51.6%.

But inevitably there were Labour casualties on Merseyside. In Wirral West, former TV presenter Esther McVey won for the Conservatives with a majority of 2,436, defeating Labour candidate Phil Davies, who polled 14,290 compared to Miss McVey’s 16,726. Labour incumbent Stephen Hesford had also stepped down.