Makerfield: Reform candidate sexist?

Shinamae

Dickens

Tuliptree

I’m feeling slightly more cheerful about Makerfield as Restore seems to be taking more votes from Reform. If Andy gets in because of a split vote, that’ll do.

If Restore are taking more votes from Reform - I wonder how long it might be before Reform's Party Chairman and Chief Whip toddles over there?

It seems like a natural move since he's gone from Labour to Conservative to Independent to Reform.

Time will tell……🤗😁

... indeed!

Who would want an MP form a party led by a man who puts his personal desire for power well ahead of serving his country and constituents, and is fighting, tooth and nail, to keep his fingers on the levers of power.

He is making this country an international laughing stock, is held in contempt by most who voted for his party in the last election and most of his lost voters are choosing to vote for a far right party rather than more centrist parties to get as far away from him as possible. yet his fingers remain grasping those levers of power.

Slight overuse of superlatives there M0nica

Casdon

Slight overuse of superlatives there M0nica

No superlatives. Just a statement of how things are.

It just made me laugh M0nica, I enjoy a bit of a rant!

Well, it’s a statement of opinion, or how you see things, not necessarily how they are . I don’t see myself or anyone I know in it, for a start, and I’m not sure how you know what ‘most’ who voted Labour think.

He is making this country an international laughing stock, is held in contempt by most who voted for his party in the last election and most of his lost voters are choosing to vote for a far right party rather than more centrist parties to get as far away from him as possible. yet his fingers remain grasping those levers of power.

As polling seems to indicate that most of the 'lost' Labour voters are turning to the Lib Dems or the Greens I think you are mistaken.

AI supplied me with these figures from the Yougov site (which appears to be down at the moment)

Start

Only 46% of people who voted Labour in the 2024 general election and then voted in the 2026 local elections stayed with Labour.

Of Labour's 2024 voters:
22% voted Green
16% voted Liberal Democrat
6% voted Reform UK
5% voted Conservative
5% voted for independents or smaller parties.

End

Unfortunately comparing a national and local election is comparing apples with oranges.

Voting participation at local elections is always much lower than at General Elections. Local elections were only held in about a third of local authority areas, and local authority boundaries are not the same as Constituency boundaries.

Local election areas are not randomised or stratified across the country to make sure they are representative of the country as a whole.

Local elections often include a lot of protest voting. Because the results do not affect the national government, the smaller % of voters voting means that those choosing to vote for protest reasons are disproportionately present among voters.

I could go on, but I won't. Those statistics represent nothing and tell us nothing.

.Those statistics represent nothing and tell us nothing.

At least they tell us something, that former Labour voters are more likely to move to other centrist or more left wing parties. I really can't see them suddenly pivoting to the right in a GE, MOnica

Whereas your assertion that most of Labour's former voters are moving to the far right is based on... what?

Sometimes people vote not so much for a party but against another one. Lot of tactical voting goes on up here anyway.

Maizie electionmaps.uk/le2026

MOnica, You're not taking into account the complete collapse of the Conservative Party, most of whose former voters almost certainly have defected to Reform. Labour's support has dropped without any doubt and possibly some has gone to Reform (but more likely Greens or LibDems). What that means in a FPTP system is that Reform has ended up the biggest party in some councils/constituencies.

Prof Sir John Curtice has shown that the Greens are doing more damage to Labour than Reform. I can't find a link which isn't embedded into a Facebook or X post, but you can find an interview with him by Googling "Professor John Curtice says that voting shows the Green Party are doing more damage to the Labour Party than Reform".

It's a strange situation. Whereas the majority of voters have opinions somewhere in the centre, the FPTP system means that the extreme parties are winning seats by achieving majorities because the opposition is splintered. During a general election, there will be more tactical voting. People will be more likely to come together to keep certain candidates out.

Lets hope the voters of Makerfield vote tactically and make sure he loses.

The voters of Makerfield voted for their MP of choice in 2025, then all of a sudden he is incentivised to resign. so that Andy Burnham can stand in his place. Did anyone in Makerfield say they wanted Burnham s their candidate. Were there other contenders for the seat with credentials equivalent to Burnhams?

I have called Burnham a 'carpet bagger' then told he couldn't be as he did have local connections, which was fortunate rather than planned. But if the constituency he was going to be carpet bagged into had been in Newcastle or Birmingham or Manchester or Bristol, he would have been shoed in there instead.

He wouldn’t M0nica. It needed to be a Manchester area constituency because he has a good reputation as their mayor, which will gain him votes. There would be nowhere comparable in the north east.

M0nica

Maizie electionmaps.uk/le2026

Sorry. This tells me nothing about whose votes went where. It doesn’t support your assertion.