[arista]

This Thursdsay
voters will need Photo ID.


[The first by-election of 2023
will take place in February after a
Labour MP quit for a role in the NHS.
A writ has been moved - meaning the
correct paperwork has been filed - for the
West Lancashire by-election.

The seat is up for grabs after Rosie Cooper
formally resigned as an MP
in November to become chairwoman
of the Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.

Ms Cooper, 72, has held the
Labour stronghold since 2005,
securing more than 52% of the vote
and a majority of 8,336 at the last election.

Having been created in 1983, the seat was held
by Tory MP Ken Hind between then
and 1992, when Labour's Colin Pickthall won it.
Labour has had control of the constituency
ever since.
Ms Cooper, who was the target of a murder plot
by a neo-Nazi in 2017, said the events she
had faced over recent years had "taken their toll".

Jack Renshaw, of Skelmersdale, Lancashire,
is currently serving a life sentence for planning to kill her.]


https://news.sky.com/story/first-by-...signs-12783194