J F Blitz fought the seat for Labour in 1945 against the sitting Tory MP, Sir Jocelyn Lucas, and lost by 3,000 votes. Blitz, a former head prefect of the Southern Grammar School for Boys and scholarship boy to Oxford, wrote the 1950 Fabian pamphlet Behind the Ration Book: a Survey of Britain’s Food Situation. Twenty years later he wrote books about decimalisation and VAT.

In 1964, R W S (Richard) Pryke represented Labour, again against Lucas. He taught economics at the University of Liverpool. In 1975, his book Rail Problem: an Alternative Strategy was republished in the US under the title The British Rail Problem: a Case Study in Economic Disaster.