Why Makerfield Matters

Today sees the people of Makerfield go to the polls in a by-election brought about by Labour’s Andy Burnham. Burnham is currently the Mayor of Greater Manchester but he wants to replace Keir Starmer as Prime Minister and become the new Leader of Labour. He can’t be either of these things unless he gets into Parliament. His expectation is that he will be successful today and that he will be in Parliament this time next week. This will start the process of edging Starmer out, one way or the other,

Now the only Party that could possibly stop him is Reform. They have a very credible candidate in the form of local plumber Robert Kenyon, a local guy who seems to have the best interests of Makerfield at heart. In the local Council elections in this area, Reform won every seat they fought. But he is unpolished and somewhat unpractised in the dark art of politics.

The dark horse in this race is Restore Britain who have created a lot of noise on-line and who are backed by Elon Musk. Some of their more enthusiastic supporters think that their candidate Rebecca Shepherd can win. I think this is the triumph of hope over reality and it’s my best guess she will not poll double digits. Her presence on the ground seems to be very low and she has given no interviews to the media. However the Restore vote may be sufficient to stop Reform winning.

Some people will say that it doesn’t really matter if Andy Burnham wins. However I take issue with this because I am certain that assuming he goes on to Prime Minister, Labour will enjoy a genuine lift in the polls. The Party will then swing further left but the boost that Burnham will provide will carry more than Starmer could.

Labour will do more damage. I care about that.

So it does matter.

If the people of Makerfield choose Burnham, given that he is using them to pursue his own agenda, they deserve all they get.