Mothin Ali tells Labour to stop begging the Greens to stand down

Last Updated on 27 May 2026 by Willem Moore



Andy Burnham and Greens Mothin Ali

There are many people attached to the Labour Party who have argued the Greens should do the ‘decent thing’ and stand down in the Makerfield by-election. The counter-argument to this is why would they? And as the Greens’ deputy leader Mothin Ali has now said:

Put up or shut up

The Makerfield race may be the most decisive by-election in British electoral history. If Andy Burnham wins, he will almost certainly replace Keir Starmer as the PM. In other words, we’re essentially having a US-style presidential race that’s being decided by a single borough in Wigan.

Current polling from Survation suggests Labour is leading:

This was before the Green Party had an official candidate, with said candidate being Sarah Wakefield:

Wakefield is the Green Party councillor for Deansgate, having recently been elected to the position. Our own Skwawkbox wrote of her:

Wakefield represents something of a ‘safe’ candidate for the Greens in Makerfield. Unlike Kennedy, she appears to have been relatively silent on Israel and its genocide in Gaza. This deprives the UK Israel lobby of an opportunity to attack her, but will also frustrate the many who will want to support a clear anti-genocide candidate in the by-election.

Given the demographics of Makerfield, it’s likely not the case that having strong opinions about the genocide would benefit her — although we always encourage such opinions, of course. The Greens’ position on other hot topics could cut through enough to trim down Burnham’s vote, if they put some effort in.

Leader Zack Polanski said the following about Wakefield:

Burnham has no such plan to tax the rich. In fact, the more we’ve looked into it, the more it seems like Burnham has no plan full stop:

Despite this, there’s some reporting to suggest that the Greens are scaling back their campaign:

As the Guardian reported:

The Greens have decided to devote only limited resources to next month’s Makerfield by-election, the Guardian has learned, in a potentially significant boost to Andy Burnham’s chances of winning the seat.

The party is instead expected to focus more on the by-election for the Greater Manchester mayoralty, which will be triggered if Burnham is returned to parliament, senior Green figures have said.

This would explain why the party is running a candidate who can simply return to her council position once the race is over. And to be fair, it might arguably be smarter to go for broke on the Greater Manchester mayoral race, should Burnham vacate the position. The question is whether this sort of tricksy behaviour will wash with members.

Which is it, Greens?

So are the Greens laying down to let Burnham in? Or are they taking the fight to Labour, as Ali suggests here:

If the Greens are standing down to let Burnham in, what happens when he’s PM?

Do they half-arse every race moving forwards to not disturb his premiership?

We know senior Greens like Caroline Lucas wanted the party to stand down because Burnham supports proportional representation. This is something he’s now admitted he wouldn’t introduce this parliament, though, and there’s no way of guaranteeing he would put it in Labour’s next manifesto — especially not if his government seems likely to benefit from not doing so.

While the senior politicians are thinking like politicians, however, the members are thinking like fighters:

The Greens’ membership hasn’t trebled because Zack Polanski made a habit of backing down. And the party would do well to remember that.

Featured image via the Canary

By Willem Moore





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