City of Chester voters will cast their verdict on Sunak’s premiership today

Voters are heading to the polls in the City of Chester. A by-election – triggered following the resignation of Labour’s Chris Matheson after the parliamentary watchdog recommend he be suspended for “serious sexual misconduct” – will be the first test of Rishi Sunak’s premiership. Labour is expected to retain the seat, but the question is: by how much? The City of Chester has changed hands plenty of times over the past couple of decades. Labour took it from the Tories in 1997, holding it until 2010. The constituency has returned a Labour MP again since 2015. The opposition secured a majority of just 93 in 2015, 9,176 in 2017 and 6,164 in 2019.

Due to the implosion of the Conservatives and the conveyor belt of Prime Ministers, Keir Starmer’s party is enjoying much higher poll ratings than 2019. Pollsters are predicting a comfortable win for the party. Labour’s candidate is a local name; Sam Dixon has served on the local council – Cheshire West and Chester Council – since 2011 and was previously leader of the council for four years, the first woman to hold the position. “We need to send a really clear message to the Conservative government,” she told Katie this week. “This is almost our poll of polls on Rishi Sunak and the chaos that we’ve seen over the summer.” Read the full interview here.

On LabourList for readers this morning, we have Labour MP Nadia Whittome, Lotika Singha and Praveen Kolluguri writing about why party members and trade unionists are setting up India Labour Solidarity (ILS) – and its launch event next week: “The brave struggles of our comrades in India now, in very difficult circumstances, should inspire us – and push us into action to support them. Encouragement and victories for them will strengthen the labour movement here too. We hope that you will join us.” Read the full piece here.