{"id":604508,"date":"2026-05-26T09:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T09:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/604508\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T09:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T09:23:08","slug":"green-party-announce-new-candidate-for-makerfield-byelection-makerfield-byelection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/604508\/","title":{"rendered":"Green party announce new candidate for Makerfield byelection | Makerfield byelection"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Green party has announced Sarah Wakefield as its new candidate in the Makerfield byelection<\/a>, after the previous candidate withdrew from the race.<\/p>\n

Wakefield, a councillor on Manchester city council, will stand for the party, saying she was proud to represent the Greens.<\/p>\n

Senior Green party<\/a> figures are divided over how much energy and resources should put into the race \u2013 despite their recent win in Gorton and Denton \u2013 because Labour\u2019s Andy Burnham is fighting a difficult challenge from Reform UK.<\/p>\n

Wakefield said she was proud to represent the Greens. She said: \u201cIt is vital in a democracy that voters are given a choice of who they want to vote for.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether we can bring back the hope that politics can create a better life for ourselves and our children. This is what the Green party represents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe showed in Gorton and Denton we can take on and beat Reform, whose backward-looking and divisive politics needs to be challenged head-on with a message that the future can be better and fairer than the failed status quo. Don\u2019t vote in anger, vote in hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wakefield, 38, is a charity director who is on maternity leave and has two young children. A councillor for Deansgate in central Manchester, she previously worked in retail with a focus on sustainable food and is a trustee of a community organisation, the party said.<\/p>\n

The Greens were forced to re-select their candidate after their previous candidate, Chris Kennedy, withdrew from the race, citing family issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Times reported that Kennedy had posted conspiracy theories on social media about the attack on Jewish community ambulances, suggesting it was a \u201cfalse flag\u201d.<\/p>\n

The party said Kennedy had apologised for the offence caused and that the posts did not reflect the views of the party.<\/p>\n

In February\u2019s Gorton and Denton byelection<\/a>, the Greens overcame a 13,000-plus Labour majority to defeat Reform and push Labour into third place \u2013 though senior party figures concede they face a much tougher electoral picture in an area like Makerfield.<\/p>\n

Caroline Lucas, the former Green MP who was the party\u2019s first MP, has led calls for the party not to impede a return to Westminster for Burnham, who is likely to seek to enter No 10 to replace Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n

Lucas said on social media: \u201cThere are times when it\u2019s more important to put country before party. This is one of them. Burnham\u2019s longstanding commitment to a fairer voting system could transform our democracy and counter the dire threat of a Reform UK government.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Jenny Jones, a veteran Green activist who is one of the party\u2019s two members of the Lords, has argued the party should fight to win the seat. She said: \u201cWe are a political party that owes it to voters to give them the chance to vote Green. Plus, this is a mess of Labour\u2019s own making. They are playing games. We are looking to replace them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Green party has announced Sarah Wakefield as its new candidate in the Makerfield byelection, after the previous…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-604508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}