Huyton is an unlikely breeding ground for Conservatives.
The Knowsley constituency that covers the town saw just 8% of votes go to the Tories at the last General Election, while this year's Knowsley Council elections continued a common theme in that zero Conservatives were elected.
So how did a young girl born in Huyton grow up to become one of the rising stars of the Tory party and to hold one of the most senior political positions in the country?
Gillian Keegan is now the Secretary of State for Education having been handed the role by Rishi Sunak when he took the keys to Downing Street last year. The position caps a remarkable rise for a woman whose career started out as an apprentice at a car factory in Kirkby.
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Ms Keegan was in Liverpool this week where she met students at the City of Liverpool College, where she also arranged a regular meeting with education ministers from the devolved nations.
Sitting down with the ECHO, we first asked how it could be that someone born into an area that has such long-standing disdain for the Conservatives could opt for a blue rosette and why she made this choice. Interestingly the Labour tradition she grew up with has not left her entirely.
"One of my proudest things in my Parliamentary office is my grandad's miner's lamp," says Ms Keegan, 55. "He was Labour through and through all his life until the day he died. Also there is my grandmother's lifelong membership to the Liverpool West Derby Labour Party, signed by (former West Derby MP) Eric Ogden."
"I've got them both on my wall in the office, I'm not sure any Labour MPs have a miner's lamp in their office," she adds.
These revelations are only likely to add to the questions many in this region will have about the political choices made by someone who was so embedded in a certain tradition and who must have witnessed the treatment of that same region through the dark and desperate days of the 1980s.
But coming of age in the 1980s Ms Keegan was more affronted by the actions of Liverpool's Militant Labour council under Derek Hatton. She points to this and her experience with unions as a young apprentice in the Kirkby factory as channelling her position away from the one shared by her family and friends.
"I learnt so much, but what I also saw there was the unions and in that time the unions were not wanting to change anything at all. Anytime there was any talk about changing working practices they would down tools. I used to say to them - it was largely women in Kirkby working on the shop floor - and I used to say, there are other places making car parts, it's a global country, they will find other places to do this and all these women will be out of a job."
Having achieved 10 O-levels, which she says was 'something of a miracle,' the Knowsley native faced an evergreen issue for those growing up in the borough - there was nowhere to study for A-Levels. This remains a problem today - the last sixth form offering provision closed in 2016.
"There was notionally A-Levels on offer when I was there but not really because not enough kids got the grades to get into the sixth forms," explains the Education Secretary, "eventually the sixth forms all kind of withered and went".
While the problem persists, Ms Keegan believes the success of Carmel College in the neighbouring St Helens borough is helping to ease the situation for young people in Knowsley. She adds: "The challenge is having enough people coming through the pipeline in one sixth form to get the critical mass. It is about getting that critical mass and making it accessible. It's a lot better than it was because of Carmel College, which is outstanding."
The lack of A-level provision and also a lack of confidence led her down the apprenticeship route and it's one she excelled at, pushing her to achieve a Business Studies degree from Liverpool John Moores and later a Masters in Strategy and Leadership from London Business School.
That led to a career in business, including positions at General Motors, Nat West and Mastercard. She entered Parliament in 2017, winning the Chichester seat for the Tories and has risen quickly through the ranks to the Secretary of State level.
She said she looks back fondly on her start in life and is a big advocate of technical education. It's a route she wants more young people to have the option of pursuing.
"We are trying to make sure that all the routes are there for a technical education. Student debt is a real thing. When I think back to myself when I left a comprehensive school in Knowsley at 16, I don't think I would have had the confidence (to go on university path).
"I did an apprenticeship and they sponsored me all the way to do a degree and I gained my confidence in steps. A lot of people do that. I wouldn't have had the nerve to invest £50,000 in myself at the age of 18. It's a big investment. Sometimes people want an easier route in, the degree apprenticeship I did was fantastic and powered my career. I just want loads of people to have that option to do the earn and learn route or to avoid the student debt."
Perhaps the most imminent challenge facing the Education Secretary is the ongoing teachers' strikes. After several rounds of action, teachers in England recently turned down a government proposal for a £1,000 one-off payment for this year and a 4.5% increase next year. The National Education Union is now re-balloting members to secure a fresh mandate for a potential further 6 months of action.
Ms Keegan insists that she does 'have a lot of sympathy' with teachers and with the unions 'to some degree.' She adds: "Inflation is real, it has gone up massively and they (teachers) didn't get a pay rise in the pandemic, these things are real. You compound that and it looks like they are getting behind.
"We have labour shortages everywhere so you are struggling to recruit so the job gets harder for those that are there. We all agree on the problem but what is the solution? If you took it simply you would say just pay an inflationary pay rise, but if we did that for everyone we would not see inflation fall quickly."
She points out that soon after landing her current position she successfully argued for an extra £2 billion funding for schools in the Autumn Statement. "That's kind of been forgotten in the noise," she adds.
If, as expected, the latest votes replenish the mandate for further strikes, this Secretary of State will find herself once again on a collision course with a union tradition that oddly has remained a part of her life since those early years in Huyton.
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