The looming Makerfield by-election matters far beyond a single seat. If Andy Burnham were able to halt Reform’s advance there, it would suggest that a sufficiently popular, locally rooted candidate can still assemble a broad anti-Reform coalition under Britain’s fragmented electoral system.
There’s a lot that the Reform candidate doesn't seem to want voters to know about him
“If he is so confident that the people of East Wiltshire want a Reform MP he should stand down to allow for a by-election.”
Reform is being slammed for running its local election campaign on a platform to cut waste, yet triggering a by-election that will cost thousands
The latest losses for the Tories mean that they have now suffered the highest number of by-election losses in a single Parliament since 1960.
The stakes are high