The kingmakers of Makerfield: English town braces for crucial by-election

Ashton-in-Makerfield, United Kingdom – In a scenario few could have predicted, voters in a northern English market town near Manchester could determine the United Kingdom’s future political leadership. The surprise resignation of the Labour Party’s Ashton-in-Makerfield MP Josh Simons in late February left the supposedly safe seat open, paving the way for the popular mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham , to step in. Recommended Stories list of 4 items end of list If he wins the seat in a crucial by-election set for June 18, he could ultimately topple embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Standing in his way are the voters, many of whom Burnham has yet to convince of his credentials for the job, and the right-wing insurgent Reform UK party, which has promised to “throw everything” at the election in a bid to block Burnham’s path to the UK Parliament. Local Peter Thompson told Al Jazeera that the stakes feel high in his town. The voters of Makerfield, he acknowledged, were the country’s kingmakers or, ominously given Burnham’s popular nickname of “King of the North”, “the king destroyers”. The constituency is difficult to categorise, political scientists said. It neither fits the stereotype of the declining industrial towns of northern England nor carries much of the metropolitan optimism typified in the soaring glass tower blocks of the nearby Manchester city centre. …