Labour has won the Chester by-election – the first public ballot since both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss were ousted from Number 10.
The party’s candidate, Samantha Dixon, won with 17,309 votes – nearly 11,000 more than the Conservative candidate.
The contest was triggered by the resignation of Labour MP Chris Matheson, who was suspended in October after two allegations of sexual misconduct from a former member of staff were upheld.
The result follows a slump in opinion polls for the Conservatives after a raft of reshuffles in their top ranks.
The party saw a small bounce in their numbers after Rishi Sunak entered Downing Street last month – the third Tory leader this year – but the Tories are still regularly polling behind Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
This is the first of two by-elections this month, with another taking place on 15 December in Stretford and Urmston, Greater Manchester.
That vote was called after Labour’s former shadow education secretary, Kate Green, announced she was standing down to become the deputy mayor of Manchester, under Andy Burnham.