News stories about the views of the party\u2019s candidate, Robert Kenyon<\/a>, also appear not to have discouraged voters. In past online posts, he has said \u201cI\u2019m sexist, sorry but I am\u201d, suggested women had abortions so they could \u201cshag anyone they want\u201d, and described gay people as \u201cpoofs\u201d.<\/p>\nStephanie Doohan: \u2018Andy Burnham doesn\u2019t care about Makerfield.\u2019 Photograph: Gary Calton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Stephanie Doohan has a Reform flag flying from a pole outside her house. A former railway worker and trade unionist, she says she is backing the party because she wants \u201cchange\u201d and Kenyon is \u201ca local lad\u201d. She dismisses criticism of his online activity, saying: \u201cThat\u2019s his opinion, we\u2019ve all got opinions. I can disagree with him, but it\u2019s his policies I\u2019m looking at.\u201d<\/p>\n
What matters to her, she says, is whether a candidate will deliver for the area. \u201cAndy Burnham is not going to do anything,\u201d she says. \u201cHe\u2019s using it as a stepping stone to become prime minister. He doesn\u2019t care about Makerfield.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the greatest threats to Reform\u2019s chances appears to be from Rupert Lowe\u2019s Restore Britain party. Polling from Survation last week put the party in third place, on 7% of the vote.<\/p>\n
And while just three months ago, in the Gorton and Denton byelection, Restore Britain was seldom mentioned, in Makerfield, Restore Britain\u2019s name comes up regularly, voiced by those for and against it.<\/p>\n
In the town of Hindley, Zoe says she has lost faith not just in Labour but in Reform too, and thinks Restore Britain will \u201cget a move on\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s struggling, the prices are going up, nothing\u2019s being done about it,\u201d she says. And she thinks Farage\u2019s party has become indistinguishable from the political establishment. \u201cI don\u2019t trust them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
The Bryn community club, which used to be the Labour club, is now the campaign headquarters of Restore Britain. On a weekday afternoon, about 24 volunteers are gathering to head out on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n
Among them is Tracey Bailey, who says: \u201cI\u2019m here as a nurse and a health visitor to save our country and save our children. I\u2019m a mother of three, and I don\u2019t like the state of the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eilieen Orrell with her granddaughter near Hindley high street. Photograph: Gary Calton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Outside a row of shuttered shops in Hindley, Eilieen Orrell, a former railway worker, says she is planning to vote for Restore Britain. A trade unionist who voted Labour at the last general election, she says she has spent the past three years following Rupert Lowe. \u201cI just like the fact that he brings up other things apart from migrants,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
For Orrell, the decline of the high street has become symbolic of a wider sense that the area has been neglected. \u201cWhen I was growing up, there were shoe shops, a Woolworths, a hardware shop \u2013 everything you could find was on the high street,\u201d she says. \u201cNow, there\u2019s nothing,\u201d she says, gesturing towards a parade of vape shops and barbers.<\/p>\n
But, of course, the main barrier to a Reform victory here is Labour\u2019s choice of candidate \u2013 Andy Burnham, the Manchester mayor, and formerly the MP for neighbouring Leigh, who is managing to regain votes that Labour had lost to the left and the right. The same Survation polling shows him with a narrow lead over Kenyon.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Whitehurst voted Green at the recent local elections, when Labour suffered heavy losses to Reform, but on 18 June: \u201cIt will be Andy.\u201d She said it petrified her to think Reform might win, \u201cor Restore\u201d as they had no interest in Green issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean the man [Kenyon] has actually said it on X or whatever,\u201d she says, \u201c[that] it was a middle-class issue. It\u2019s just bizarre.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whitehurst\u2019s house in Abram was one of those affected by flooding and the family was forced to live upstairs for months. \u201cIt was extremely difficult,\u201d she says, \u201cthere was no help, there was nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michelle Hogan: \u2018I\u2019ve always liked Andy Burnham.\u2019 Photograph: Gary Calton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Michelle Hogan, who works as the head of a supply chain for a fruit juice manufacturer, says: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t [be] voting for Labour if it wasn\u2019t for Andy Burnham.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Labour have lost their way,\u201d she adds. \u201cI don\u2019t think Keir Starmer represents working-class people. I\u2019ve always liked Andy Burnham, but I think he\u2019s got a track record now with what he\u2019s done for Manchester, and I just think he\u2019s a personable, down-to-earth bloke, who working-class people can relate to.<\/p>\n
\u201cI literally was overjoyed when I heard he was standing for Makerfield, and I do think that what [retiring MP] Josh Simons has done has been overlooked,\u201d she says, \u201cbecause I think what he\u2019s done is really selfless, because I think a lot of people like myself think that this is the last chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hogan added: \u201cI didn\u2019t vote last time and it\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever not voted. I probably would have voted Green if Andy Burnham wasn\u2019t standing. I do think Green might split the Labour vote, which worries me a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarah Wakefield, the Green candidate, defends the party\u2019s decision to field a candidate. \u201cI\u2019d say that the Green party<\/a> did not call this byelection, Labour chose to call this byelection, Andy Burnham has chosen to stand in this byelection, and it\u2019s his job to make the case for why he should be the representative of these people,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s not my job \u2013 my job is to tell people why they should vote for Green policies.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the party is not dedicating anything like the resources it put into Gorton and Denton, where it ultimately came away victorious. \u201cIt\u2019s a different area and it\u2019s a different campaign,\u201d Wakefield says.<\/p>\n
Back in Hindley, Sue Houghton is also backing Burnham, even though she says: \u201cI\u2019m not normally a Labour voter at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul and Sue Houghton. Photograph: Gary Calton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
She hopes Burnham will challenge Starmer to lead the government. \u201cHe is not a strong enough leader,\u201d she says. \u201cHe\u2019s not got the public behind him, I don\u2019t think, normal people like us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her husband, Paul Houghton, adds: \u201cIf it was a normal election, I would normally vote for Reform, but I\u2019m going to vote for Labour this time, and I\u2019ve not voted for Labour in years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s doing a good job for Manchester, he\u2019s done a cracking job as mayor,\u201d he says, \u201cand I think he\u2019ll make a good prime minister.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The roads that connect the collection of towns and villages that make up this constituency in England are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-613551","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\/613551","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=613551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}