Britain’s opposition Labor Party won a key parliamentary seat in a special election, giving leader Keir Starmer a boost in his first election test against new Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Labour’s Samantha Dixon defeated Conservative candidate Liz Wardlaw in the north-west English city of Chester, winning 61% of the vote. Dixon received 17,309 votes compared to 6,335 for Wardlaw. “People in Chester and across our country are really concerned,” Dixon said, according to the Press Association. “They were afraid of losing their homes because they couldn’t afford to pay the mortgage or the rent, they were afraid they might flood,” she said.
The election was prompted by the resignation of Chris Matheson, who had represented the seat for Labor since 2015, following allegations of sexual abuse. But few expected Chester to fall to the Tories, with Labor riding high in the national polls. A YouGov poll on Thursday put the party 25 points ahead of the Conservatives. Chester is a swing seat that has alternated between Labor and the Conservatives since the 1990s, and the extent of the victory will be analyzed by opposition strategists as they look ahead to the next general election, which is due to be held in January 2025 at the latest. If Labor is to regain power after more than a decade out of office, it’s the kind of constituency they need to consolidate.
Sunak became prime minister on 25 October; his predecessor, Liz Truss, lasted just seven weeks in office after the tax-cutting budget sent financial markets reeling and the pound plummeting. Sunak has since changed her economic policy, preparing a series of tax increases and spending cuts. Conservatives in Westminster will seek to distance themselves from what they see as a local competition. Government parties often get kicked in mid-term by-elections. Dixon echoed Starmer’s calls for a general election. She added that Sunak’s government was “on borrowed time and people want change”, calling the result a judgment call on his premiership and describing Chester as a “bellwether constituency”.
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