FORMER Prime Minister Gordon Brown says it was all his fault that Labour lost Chester at the 2010 General Election.

He made no bones about it when he addressed an audience at Storyhouse as part of the 2017 Chester Literature Festival where he talked about his new memoir My Life, Our Times.

At the beginning of his talk he apologised for Labour losing the City of Chester constituency when his time at the head of government came to an end more than seven years ago.

He said he took personal responsibility for “losing the Chester seat, despite all the good work that had been done in the city.”

Christine Russell, who had been the first Labour MP for Chester and first woman MP for the city, lost her House of Commons seat in 2010 after winning at three previous General Elections.

Mrs Russell was in the audience for the Gordon Brown talk.

“Gordon was brilliant - very relaxed and jovial,” she said. “He had a very warm reception from the audience.

“He saw me at the end and gave me a huge bear hug.”

Mrs Russell was defeated in 2010 by Conservative Stephen Mosley, but he lost the seat narrowly to Labour’s Chris Matheson in 2015 who went onto consolidate his position as the city’s MP earlier this year.