The story so far:
If Burnham gets through the Makerfield by-election, it's almost certain he'll replace Starmer, it's a tough area for labour to win based on polls and the local elections and it's directly head to head with Reform. Nobody else really has a chance.
Reform have picked a candidate, Robert Kenyon, a local plumber.
Bobby has been banned from X/Twitter. Some of the details of why he was banned from twitter are slowly coming to light, I can't see why Musk's twitter should ban him for those, so I suspect there's worse:
The archive of Robert Kenyon’s suspended X account reveals intense activity after three children were murdered in Southport in 2024
bylinetimes.com
I'm not reposting it here, it's predictably misogynistic, racist and anti-LGBTQ. With Covid conspiracy stuff mixed again.
Right now, 40% of folks in Makerfield say they're voting for that. Sounds like a lovely area.
The Greens picked a candidate. It went badly.
Senior Green Party members called on the party to withdraw from the crucial by-election
www.independent.co.uk
"Chris Kennedy was announced to be running for the Greens on Thursday, but the party confirmed he had dropped out some nine hours later, citing “personal and family reasons”.
The Times later reported it had approached Mr Kennedy about a series of social media posts he had shared.
According to the newspaper, an Instagram video shared by Mr Kennedy described the arrests of two men over an arson attack on Jewish ambulances as “total bulls*** to keep the false flag flying”."
He was dropped, the new candidate, Sarah Wakefield, is currently on maternity leave. So I guess she won't be campaigning? You're not supposed to work while on maternity leave, can lose your maternity payments if you're caught working more than a certain amount of days, IIRC it's 7. Suppose she doesn't have the job, but technically, it's iffy.
Anyway, Musk is backing Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain (for people who think Reform are too far left), who have Rebecca Shepherd as their candidate. Nothing out about her (yet). Labour will not be attacking her because right now, she's got 7% of the polls. Keep up the politics, Elon, you're helping your cause again!
Right now, Burnham has a slim lead, with 43% in the most recent poll.
If he wins, it'll be an enormous boost to labour, win a Brexity area (65% Leave), beating reform and a leader the press are mildly positive about.
www.thetimes.com
www.theguardian.com
