Chester's Labour candidate visits military families with Shadow Secretary for Defence

Councillor Sam Dixon was joined by John Healey MP on the campaign trail on Thursday (November 3) as she spoke with residents and visited the Cheshire Military Museum. Cllr Dixon will be hoping to become MP for Chester when voters go to the polls on December 1.

With Remembrance Day on the horizon, the military history and indeed future of Chester was a pertinent topic of conversation, with both Mr. Healey and Ms. Dixon emphasising the importance of facilities like Dale Barracks both to the community and to Labour's plans as a whole.

READ MORE: Record nine candidates standing to be next City of Chester MP

Speaking to The Standard, Cllr Dixon said: "As a former leader of the Council, it was really important to me that we had an Armed Forces Champion. Given the legacy we have from the Cheshire Regiment and the Mercian Regiment, who recently exercised their freedom to march through the city, I am very keen for us to continue that relationship with our armed forces personnel and veterans.

"We've also got a lot of people who are reservists, they are embedded in our communities. It is important that we recognise their contribution as well and that is part of what they're doing at the Barracks.

"It is an important facility that we have in our city and I believe that it should be retained."

John Healey MP added: "Cheshire and Chester has a centuries-old, proud history and connection with the army and that's as strong now as it's always been. There's a pride for the families whose members have served but also the communities in which they've lived."

Labour's candidate for Chester, Sam Dixon and Shadow Secretary for Defence John Healey MP at the Cheshire Military Museum. (Image: The Labour Party)

"If Sam is the MP for this city on December 2, she will be a strong voice for Chester and I know that she will fight to get the government to think again about closing the barracks.

"For Labour in government, one of the first things we will do is launch a full scale defence and security review and part of that has to be, in the face of new Russian aggression which is likely to last for at least a decade, we have got to rethink some plans and that has got to include taking a look at the decisions that are in place at the moment to sell off or close barracks.

"This is a barracks that still serves, not just the military connection for a city like Chester, but as the base for regiments that in the last decade have been training Ukrainian recruits, have been doing tours of duty in Afghanistan and have been part of British military deployments in Iraq."

Labour's candidate says that maintaining sites such as the base in Moston can play a key part of preventing global instability.

"I have a role as the Leader's Champion for Refugees and have worked with Council officers welcoming those Ukrainians fleeing the war. I know how hard it is for those people to come to a completely new country and to make a life here.

"They have been welcomed here with open arms by residents from the Chester area, we've seen about 270 refugees coming to the city, and its a big number, unless we play our part in a military sense, that's only going to increase. We'll be seen as weak."

Mr Healey said that the visit to Cheshire's Military Museum had been "moving" and that he had noticed that public sentiment and support for the armed forces was at a higher level across the country than he had seen in recent years.

"We're both wearing our poppies, all of our canvasses are. It's a point at which the nation comes together, irrespective of politics, irrespective of background and people recognise the service that those who volunteer to serve in our forces give to us all. They defend us all, they defend the country and it also has that poignancy as we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice."

Discussing her bid to be MP for Chester, Ms. Dixon said: "We're campaigning very hard. We're out on the doorsteps, in the next couple of days we'll be setting out my vision for the city and launching the campaign.

"It's about meeting as many residents in the city as possible. I already represent a large area in the Chester City and Garden Quarter Ward but now it is about all of the other areas too. I will be working with other Labour councillors to get out and about.

"Chester needs someone who knows the city and can voice its concerns, whether its young people and families who are worried about whether their jobs are going to continue or older people who are worried about their pensions and whether they will be able to heat their homes this winter. It's hard to believe that it is our country that is facing this, the instability is profoundly troubling for a lot of people."

Mr Healey added: "I've seen a lot of by-elections and it is such a big advantage if your MP is elected as a local candidate and can hit the ground running. Sam can because she has that political experience and she knows the patch, which is great for local people but also, from the point of view of being in the House of Commons, you can see the difference in someone who has been doing the job from day one rather than spending weeks or months learning the ropes."