Ashley Dalton was first elected as the Labour Party MP for West Lancashire in a February 2023 by-election, doing so with a majority of 8,326. She succeeded Rosie Cooper who stood down from parliament in order to take up a job in the NHS.
The seat of West Lancashire is found in the very bottom left hand corner of Lancashire and covers the towns of Skelmersdale, Burscough and Ormskirk. The seat contains a number of Manchester and Liverpool commuters, alongside the more traditionally working class town of Ormskirk.  The University of Edge Hill is found in this constituency. This area was narrowly held by the Conservatives in the 1980s but in recent years has lent far more heavily to Labour, having been held by the party consistently since 1992.
Dalton previously worked for Southend Borough Council, and is a member of the trade union, Unison.
She has talked about previously recovering from breast cancer and has volunteered for Macmillan Cancer Support.
Dalton has been a member of the executive of LGBT Labour.
She twice stood for parliament before, having previously been defeated by the Conservatives in Rochford and Southend East in both 2017 and 2019.
Dalton was born in Lancashire and was brought up in Leyland in South Ribble. She attended Middlesex University. She joined the Labour party whilst at university.
