Andy Burnham’s face stares out from posters blocking the windows of a derelict pub in Ashton, airbrushed to the point of caricature. His election leaflet is shaped like a vinyl single — a 45rpm record that says “Keep the Faith.” Few have.
“I don’t understand how politics works,” says a local girl. “Nobody used to talk about politics here until two weeks ago.” She gets her information from YouTube, will not vote, and talks about politics as if it frightens her.
“In a fractious by-election, half of Makerfield's voters may not vote, as distrust and social media fuel resentment.”
Ashton is a town of “amazing intensity — and bleakness,” once a coal town with a famous hinge factory. Now there is a KFC, a job centre, a betting shop and a wedding dress shop. The council have dug up the road in tribute to the by-election’s temporary importance. Half the voters will not bother.
A taxi driver, once a lawyer in Pakistan, says white boys throw stones at his car. He shows the cracks in the window. He blames Elon Musk and says things have never been so bad.
This could have been another Runcorn and Helsby, which Reform took from Labour by six votes last year. But all by-elections are “fables of resentment,” and the most thrilling narrative usually wins. Burnham’s promise to topple Starmer if elected makes him the insurgent here, not Reform.
Reform, which usually manifests the disconnect, is threatened by its dissident ex-MP Rupert Lowe, who has founded Restore. In Norfolk, Restore’s branch Great Yarmouth First won 10 local election seats on a platform to ban the burka, defund the BBC, begin mass deportations and hold a referendum on the death penalty. Restore will welcome Tommy Robinson if he chooses to join, though Reform will not.
Burnham’s campaign HQ is a sports hall filled with activists from all over Britain — like a Liberal Democrat campaign, exuding the excitement of day-trippers. A southern Labour MP arrives in a bright Range Rover, reminding a reporter of Boris Johnson’s motorcade in Hartlepool in 2021, when Labour lost.
On Friday, the circus will leave town, taking no one’s anxiety with it.