Labour holds City of Chester as Sam Dixon secures majority of 10,974 votes

Labour has won the City of Chester by-election, seeing Sam Dixon elected in Rishi Sunak’s first electoral test as Prime Minister by a majority of 10,974 votes in a by-election on Thursday.

Dixon has been a councillor on Cheshire West and Chester Council since 2011, representing Chester City and the Garden Quarter ward. She was previously leader of the council and the first woman to hold the position. Earlier this year, Dixon was recognised with an MBE for her services to Chester.

City of Chester

LAB: 61.2% (+11.6)
CON: 22.4% (-15.9)
LDEM: 8.4% (+1.5)
GRN: 2.8% (+0.1)
REF: 2.7% (+0.2)
REU: 1.0% (+1.0)
UKIP: 0.6% (+0.6)
MRLP: 0.6% (+0.6)
FA: 0.3% (+0.3)

Turnout: 41.2%
Lab HOLD

LabourList interviewed Dixon ahead of the vote. She described the by-election as a “poll of polls on Rishi Sunak and the chaos that we’ve seen over the summer” and said voters “need to send a really clear message to the Conservative government”.

The by-was triggered after Chris Matheson had the Labour whip withdrawn and then resigned when the Independent Expert Panel (IEP), the parliamentary watchdog, recommended he be suspended for “serious sexual misconduct”.

According to the watchdog’s report, the complainant alleged that Matheson had “behaved inappropriately towards her on a number of occasions”, including “unwanted touching” at work social events and a “sexually motivated invitation to take a secret trip to Gibraltar”.

The parliamentary commissioner for standards concluded that the invitation to Gibraltar was “sexually motivated, unwanted and had placed the complainant under pressure and intimidated her”.

The complaint also involved “sexually motivated incidents” at and after a formal work social dinner, including allegations that Matheson “invited her back to his flat, kissed her twice on the forehead and attempted to kiss her on the mouth”.

Labour has enjoyed months of positive polling results. The by-election followed the resignation of Boris Johnson, a Tory leadership campaign followed by the selection and resignation of Liz Truss, and the appointment of Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister.

Labour won the parliamentary constituency from the Conservatives in 1997, holding the seat until 2010. The City of Chester has returned a Labour MP since 2015, when Labour won by a margin of just 93 votes. Labour’s Chris Matheson held the seat in 2017 with a majority of 9,176 and in 2019 with a majority of 6,164.