Helen Pidd goes to Makerfield where the Labour candidate and would-be prime minister Andy Burnham faces Reform UK in a crucial byelection. With reporting from Josh Halliday
On Thursday, Makerfield is hosting what is surely the most consequential byelection in memory.
If he wins, Andy Burnham will challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership – and attempt to save the party and the government from its current malaise.
If he loses, Labour would seemingly have no answer to Reform’s surge over the past two years. Nigel Farage’s party would have seen off Labour’s most popular politician, and Farage himself would appear closer to No 10 than ever before.
Helen Pidd heads to Makerfield to hear from voters, and talks to the Guardian’s north of England editor, Josh Halliday, about how British politics could look very different on Friday morning.
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