Chris Matheson was last night selected as Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for the City of Chester constituency.
A veteran of the North West party board, Matheson works for Unite the union as an industrial officer and lives in the constituency. He based his campaign on combining “local roots and national experience.”
He beat development economist Peter D’Souza into second place, with local councillor Sam Dixon coming third. Matheson won on the third ballot.
In a leaflet distributed in the final few days of campaigning, Matheson outlined his vision of ‘Chester 2020’, promising if elected to galvanise businesses and the local university behind a drive for to improve local skills and bring in new investment.
Although Chester is usually regarded as one of the most affluent boroughs in the North West, the Campaign to End Child Poverty (a collection of anti-poverty groups) found that 17% of children in the City of Chester constituency are currently living in poverty.
Also, the Chester and Ellesmere Port foodbank, set up last November, has recently seen the number of people it helps treble.
Sitting Conservative MP Stephen Moseley has a majority of 2,583.
Tags: Chester, Chester 2020, Chris Matheson, Parliamentary selections, Unite