It’s a rainy and blustery Friday morning at the UK’s largest retail park, but Middlebrook remains busy with shoppers stocking up for the weekend. The shopping outlet, alongside Bolton Wanderers Toughsheet Stadium, is in the heart of the Bolton West constituency with incumbent MP Chris Green winning by a margin of 8,855 at the last election in 2019. That makes it the most comfortable Conservative majority of the seven parliamentary seats they hold in Greater Manchester.
The Labour hopeful for the seat is Phil Brickell while candidates will also stand for the Liberal Democrats , Reform, English Democrats and the Greens. The constituency is not considered a typical ‘red wall’ seat where the Tories broke through for the first time in 2019, but more of a traditional marginal with both the Conservatives and Labour winning over recent decades. READ MORE: 'We're the area where rent has gone up the most.
Why? We're the poorest town going' It includes the large towns of Horwich and Westhoughton, along with semi-rural villages and large swathes of green belt. Road congestion and the proliferation of housing developments are major issues voters often speak about in Bolton West. The Horwich Loco Works development will see more than 1,000 homes built near Chorley New Road and other schemes include a large estate currently being built on the former Horwich Golf Club.
Congestion is rife in the town, particularly centred on the Beehive roundabout, which funnels traffic towards Bolton,.
