In City of Chester, the very model of a new Labour constituency, the prospect of UK entry into the euro seems to be meeting a profound indifference.

Described by the Conservative challenger David Jones as "a typical middle Britain city", Chester's apparent phlegmatism on the issue does not bode well for the attempts of the Conservative party to turn it into a national vote-winner.

A Conservative seat since the Liberal party took it in their landslide of 1906, Chester went Labour in 1997 with a 10,553 majority.

Belying the popular image of northern cities as dependent on a declining manufacturing base, a third of the prosperous Chester economy is retail and tourism, helped by the walled city's Roman past and its world-famous zoo. Another quarter is financial services - the national headquarters of the US credit card company MBNA and the financial services wing of Marks and Spencer are both based in the city.

The Conservatives in Chester claim their stance against the euro is a vote-winner. Mr Jones - a solicitor from Llandudno across the Welsh border - says private polling shows 60 per cent of locals want to keep the pound.

He says: "If you ask people on the doorstep what they want to talk about and mention Europe, they say: well, we don't want to join the euro, do we?"

But Cestrians, as the city's natives are known, do not seem to raise the issue of their own accord. Christine Russell, the Labour MP and a former local librarian, says: "In the past four years, it has not been raised as an issue at all. Businesses like MBNA are obviously aware it will have an impact, but the last time I went to talk to them, they were more concerned about the e-commerce bill going through parliament."

Tony Dawson, the Liberal Democrat candidate, says: "I have been canvassing hard for two weeks, spoken to 1500-2000 people, and have heard it mentioned exactly twice."

The UK Independence Party is putting up a candidate - but it may well poll fewer votes than the head of the Chester City Football Club independent supporters' association, who is standing as a candidate to express outrage at the behaviour of the club's chairman.

Nor do local businesses seem to think the euro particularly important. Rod Playford, senior economic development officer at Chester City Council, says the sterling-euro exchange rate has little effect on the city. Nearly half of foreign tourists are American and Japanese. "When the dollar is weak and US visitor numbers tail off, the number of European visitors rises to compensate," he says.

Tara Jade, who owns a designer clothing store in the city centre and chairs the city's chamber of trade and enterprise, would welcome currency stability against the euro to make the price of her imported Versace garments more predictable. But she adds: "At the moment, the debate about the euro is a pure media campaign. Our concern is more what is happening on our doorstep." Car parking in the city centre and the competition from out-of-town retail developments are more of a worry for her members.

Indifference seems to be winning. The Conservatives' "Keep the Pound" day of action on Saturday - a street stall draped in the Union Jack, set up alongside the city's Victorian town hall - attracted no more than a trickle of visitors, many of whom already seemed to know the local party members staffing the stall, and had been dismantled by lunchtime.