It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first-past-the-post voting system.
The City of Liverpool wards of Aigburth, Church, Grassendale, Picton, and Smithdown.
The constituency was created for the 1983 general election; half of its territory was previously in the abolished constituency of Liverpool Edge Hill.
Alton had first been elected to parliament at a by-election in March 1979 for Liverpool Edge Hill, and held that seat until its abolition in 1983.
The constituency was abolished for the 1997 general election; Alton retired from the Commons and was appointed a cross-bench member of the House of Lords, and the Mossley Hill area itself was transferred to the redrawn constituency of Liverpool Riverside, a safe Labour seat.