From 1918 until 1950 Waterloo was within the Parliamentary seat known as the Waterloo constituency, a safe seat for the Conservative Party. From 1950 until 2010 Waterloo was within the boundaries of the Crosby constituency. From 1997 to 2010 the MP was Claire Curtis-Thomas, a member of the Labour Party, prior to her election the Crosby seat was generally considered to be a safe Conservative Party stronghold, like its predecessor seat, with Tory MP's elected at every election barring the 1981 Crosby by-election where Shirley Williams of the Social Democratic Party was elected to represent the constituency.