One to watch, maybe

The residents of Makerfield will soon be waking up with the desire to go on a long holiday abroad. The by-election there is shaping up to be, no hyperbole, historic. That is if Andy Burnham is permitted by Starmer’s lieutenants on the National Executive Committee to be Labour’s candidate. I know Starmer himself has publicly said he won’t stand in Burnham’s way but I imagine his acolytes on the NEC may feel differently, possibly even with echoes of McSweeney pinging around their grey cells. If Burnham does stand, it will clearly be the first by-election the incumbent PM would rather lose. I wonder how party staff will cope? Will they pull their punches as happened in the 2019 general election when they didn’t want Corbyn to win? Reform UK will obviously throw everything they’ve got at it, which means there’ll need to be a close eye kept on their billionaire-backed expenses. And now in this new world of multi-party politics, what about the Greens, who actually did see off Reform in the Gorton and Denton by-election? It will be a test for Zack Polanski as to whether he wishes to be cast as the progressive vote splitter and let Reform in. But he may think another Green success will put his party even more to the fore, even on a route to No.10. So for every resident of Makerfield there will soon be 10 party workers and 12 journalists, and doormats will be six inches deep in unread leaflets. It could all signal a massive if messy end to a long period of political indigestion.

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