Home News Runcorn voters head to polls in Starmer’s first by-election test

Runcorn voters head to polls in Starmer’s first by-election test

30th April 2025

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Voters in Runcorn and Helsby head to the polls this Thursday for the first by-election of the current parliament. With 15 candidates in the running, the Labour-held constituency may be under threat as a tight battle is to expected.

The constituency combines Runcorn, on the bank of the River Mersey, and a more rural area of small parish villages towards Chester, formed by boundary changes ahead of last year’s general election.

The by-election was triggered by the resignation of the former Labour MP Mike Amesbury in January 2025, who was handed a 10-week prison term after punching a constituent in Frodsham, Cheshire. The term was reduced to a suspended sentence after an appeal in February.

The area was considered a stronghold for the Labour Party in the Northwest of England, but this by-election has seen a shift towards the running-up party, Reform UK.

Runcorn Town Centre (c) Heidi Hardman-Welsh — Runcorn Town Centre

Sarah Pochin, candidate for Reform UK, said in her minute manifesto to the BBC: “I will be campaigning for more police on our streets, we need to be cracking down on the drug problem, we need to be cracking down on anti-social behaviour, we need to be cracking down on shoplifting.

“I will also be looking at local issues for the area such as pollution from the incinerator, the tolls on the bridges, and as I say, I will listen to the voice of local people, what they care about, I care about.”

Labour candidate, Karen Shore, said in her minute manifesto to the BBC: “My campaign is rooted in what you have been raising with me. I’m on your side on the issues that matter most to you. I’ll get our NHS back on its feet and deliver more appointments locally.

“Cut crime by putting a named police officer in every neighbourhood, turn around our town centres to bring back shoppers and businesses, and I’ll back local workers by building on my track record of bringing jobs to our area.

“That’s the difference a Labour MP working with a Labour government can make. On May 1st, you have a choice, your vote will matter. A vote for me is a vote for a local, hard-working MP who is on your side and gets things done”.

One of the central areas of debate throughout the by-election has been immigration. However, Liberal Democrat candidate Paul Duffy said bigger issues are at hand.

He told Mersey News Live: “Immigration is an important issue, but we still have a cost-of-living crisis. It’s people who run businesses that have to deal with jobs tax; it’s pensioners who withdraw all of their winter fuel allowance. It’s how do we improve the NHS and how do we improve social care.

“I think some of the campaign candidates have made it [immigration] a front and centre issue, and some of the language, fear, and division are not appropriate.

“The Labour want to be Tories, the Tories want to be Reform, and Reform wants a Trump agenda. So they’re pushing everything to the right, and we’re a centre party. We want to concentrate on local issues and deal with local complaints.”

Jason Hughes, candidate for Volt UK, a new pro-EU party, said: “We believe in transforming democracy to a bottom-up and not top-down approach, making sure that citizens can vote on services that impact them. We would advocate for people whose services are affected to make the decisions on how their money is spent.”

He added: “We need to reverse Brexit. I understand why people voted for it, but it’s not worked. It’s not going to work, and my view is we must not cut off our noses to continue to spite our faces. Certainly, from the customs and trade point of view, we’re by all estimates £150 worse off.

“Rejoining would have the biggest impact on our economy, and only then can you start to reduce the tax burden on low- and middle-income families.

“A vote for me, or indeed any of the other non-Labour parties, is flagging up to the government and the country the direction people want to go in.”

Michael Williams, a Helsby resident and independent candidate in the by-election, said: “People are quite dissatisfied with their public officials. I think public trust in people that have come through a party system is at an all-time low because politicians are more and more willing to erode public trust by promising things they can’t deliver.

“But I don’t have the baggage or the political upbringing that makes me put a party before the people. If anything, I have no other agenda than what an MP should be doing, which is serving and representing the people in their constituency”.

Mr Williams added: “While I can’t promise to snap my fingers and reverse benefit cuts or things like that, having a voice in Parliament which is free to object to these things, that isn’t applied to a party policy, means I can represent the people more directly. I can have that voice that some of the other parties wouldn’t be able to.”

Howling Laud Hope, leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party and candidate in the by-election, said: “We are the only party that’s on everybody’s side, no matter what political perspective they may be. We are the party that has seen it all before, heard it all before, and still don’t believe it, just like everybody else.

“That’s why lots of people say, ‘I’m not voting at all, I don’t trust any of them, if there was a space for none of the above, I would vote’, well there is a space for none of the above, it’s called the Monster Raving Loony Party”.