When Labour lost Hartlepool to the Tories in a parliamentary by-election 18 months ago, Keir Starmer was reported to have asked aides: ‘Why does everybody hate us?’
After the heavy Tory defeat in last night’s City of Chester by-election, Rishi Sunak would do well to pose the same question to his own lieutenants. Because the result confirms him as the second Conservative prime minister in a row not to receive any kind of electoral honeymoon.
That Labour held Chester will in itself raise few eyebrows. After all, opposition parties are supposed to find defending their own seats at by-elections pretty straightforward. But the heavy extent of the Conservative defeat in a constituency where the party was very competitive at recent elections and when the previous Labour MP had resigned in disgrace is a harbinger of doom.
Labour chalked up a 61 per cent vote share, compared to the Tories’ 22 per cent. The party achieved a 14 per cent swing against the Tories, giving it a majority of nearly 11,000 in a contest that saw a relatively respectable 41 per cent turnout.
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