Charlie Alford

Makerfield: Here’s what really motivated voters

Post author:Cameron Baillie
Post published:23 June 2026
Post last modified:23 June 2026

The medium-sized town of Ashton-in-Makerfield, its ~70,000 voters and its historic by-election will forever be remembered in British political history for ridding us of Keir Starmer. And a good riddance it is! Who comes to replace him may be marginally better, more of the same, or far worse. It seems unimaginable at this point that Andy ‘U-Turn’em’ Burnham will be a significant break from the Labour mold. (See: trans existence, hostile immigration policy, water nationalisation, electoral reform or Gaza’s genocide.) Regardless of what Canary reporters make of Burnham, we find ourselves naturally sympathetic with the 55% of voters who backed him…

Reform & Restore fight over who lost Makerfield worse

Post author:Willem Moore
Post published:20 June 2026
Post last modified:20 June 2026

In the Makerfield by-election, the three parties of the right failed to win enough votes between them to match Labour’s result. Rather than reflecting on what this means, however, Reform UK and Restore Britain have decided to argue over who lost hardest: You got less than the BNP in 2010. You threw everything you had at it, day and night and got only 3000 votes. It was an unmitigated disaster. https://t.co/rSi63Fe6Sp — Rt Hon Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) June 19, 2026 Come on now, there’s no need to argue! You’re all losers, and that’s what matters. Let them fight The rise of…

Is Makerfield a tipping point, or just a speed bump?

Post author:Jamie Driscoll
Post published:19 June 2026
Post last modified:19 June 2026

Andy Burnham’s back in Westminster after the Makerfield by-election. He’ll soon be Prime Minister. Which Andy turns up remains to be seen. And that, in part, will determine how much of a honeymoon he gets. If he guns for the privatised utilities and invests in council housing and public transport as he should, the establishment will target him. If he sits on the fence over Gaza, Palestine Action, or the EU, his coalition of voters will start to break apart. He’s one of the best communicators in politics – he can seem to offer everyone a little bit of hope. But…

Makerfield ‘Count Binface’ candidate delivers a slam dunk over Farage

Post author:Skwawkbox
Post published:19 June 2026
Post last modified:21 June 2026

Political candidate Jonathan Harvey — also known as ‘Count Binface’ — stood in the Makerfield by-election for comedy value rather than in hope of winning. But even a comedy candidate has more political honesty than racist Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Notably, the peculiar atmosphere of Makerfield displayed just how easily humour can inform local politics. Quizzed by Sky News about his candidacy and whether he lived in the constituency, Harvey promised he would move there if he won, and reminding viewers that Farage “spends more time in America than in Clacton.” Farage is notionally the MP for Clacton in Essex,…

Makerfield wasn’t the only by-election Reform UK just lost

Post author:Ed Sykes
Post published:19 June 2026
Post last modified:19 June 2026

In addition to losing in Makerfield, Reform UK lost the two seats it literally just won last month. Reform losses, Tory gains The 18 June by-elections in Essex took place because the Reform winner — you guessed it — turned out to be a racist mess. Stuart Prior had won both a County Council seat and a District Council seat in May. So both required new elections. Even before Reform snatched Essex from the Tories, there had already been reporting that Prior had shown support for the rape of Sikh women and called white people ‘the master race’. Along with vile Islamophobic…

Only the Green Party commits to Makerfield public ownership pledges

Post author:The Canary
Post published:16 June 2026
Post last modified:17 June 2026

Only the Green Party has responded to a Makerfield public ownership pledge launched today, explaining which local public services they would take back if elected. Andy Burnham has not clarified his position, despite his critique of privatisation in recent weeks. Campaign group We Own It asked the six main Makerfield candidates for their positions on public ownership of water, energy and buses, as well as a local BlackRock deal with Greater Manchester Pension Fund to buy up GP surgeries. Nearly 10,000 emails have been sent to the candidates over the weekend to put pressure on them to reveal their policies. This…

Reform and Restore activists kick off in Makerfield

Post author:Willem Moore
Post published:15 June 2026
Post last modified:15 June 2026

TikTok user Carl Fairhurst has recorded an agitated encounter between Reform UK and Restore Britain. It’s yet more evidence the two parties are very, very upset with one another. Restore and Reform are beefing in Makerfield. pic.twitter.com/Z94a0CYm01 — Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) June 15, 2026 Let them fight Restore is a Reform breakaway party which exists because the latter party wasn’t right-wing enough. In the video above, a Restore-branded Land Rover has pulled up in front of a Reform-branded bus. It’s hard to make out what’s going on, but men from each camp are yelling at one another. At one point, a man…

Count Binface Makerfield manifesto would stitch up Burnham

Post author:John Ranson
Post published:4 June 2026
Post last modified:9 June 2026

Count Binface is among the candidates for the Makerfield by-election. So voters will have at least one coherent manifesto to ponder. UK politics has a long and rich tradition of electoral candidates who apparently exist in a different universe from everyone else. It’s how we ended up with Boris Johnson and Liz Truss as successive PMs. But aside from the utter deadbeats standing for allegedly serious parties, there’s the novelty candidate. The Official Monster Raving Loony Party pretty much wrote the book on this sort of thing. And its leader, Alan ‘Howlin’ Laud Hope, will be lining up alongside 13 others…

MSM scrape barrel to attack Greens’ Makerfield candidate

Post author:Skwawkbox
Post published:27 May 2026
Post last modified:8 June 2026

Yesterday, Skwawkbox predicted that the ‘mainstream’ media (MSM) and Israel lobby would struggle to find anything to use against new Green party Makerfield by-election candidate Sarah Wakefield. It wasn’t a compliment. But Wakefield’s apparent silence on important issues like Gaza means that the ‘MSM’ is, as predicted, scraping right through the bottom of the barrel. So far, it’s had to pick on the blandest things imaginable — like wanting fairer farming. Their narrative of the Green Party is as dull as it is revealing. MSM panic at “decolonising” pledges The Murdoch Times has dedicated a whole, quite lengthy article and two…

Reform is pretending its Makerfield candidate was Action Man

Post author:Willem Moore
Post published:27 May 2026
Post last modified:8 June 2026

Reform UK’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election is one Robert Kenyon. So far, Kenyon has attracted a great deal of criticism for the things he’s said in the past and the things he’s saying right now. Kenyon isn’t the only one talking nonsense, however, with his party joining in too: He was a Lance Corporal in the Army Reserves. Stop trying to make it out as anything more than it is. He’s also a sexist and a perv. pic.twitter.com/O2Urc8Q0J2 — Reform Party UK Exposed (@reformexposed) May 26, 2026 Reform gets territorial As Reform Exposed notes above, Kenyon was a member of…

“Vote in hope” – Greens announce Sarah Wakefield as new Makerfield candidate

Post author:Skwawkbox
Post published:26 May 2026
Post last modified:8 June 2026

The Green Party has announced Manchester councillor Sarah Wakefield as its new candidate for the Makerfield by-election. The announcement comes after the withdrawal of Chris Kennedy from the contest. Wakefield launched her campaign by calling on voters: Don’t vote in anger, vote in hope. There’s plenty to be angry about outside of Makerfield. From the sabotage of his own party by departing MP Josh Simons and his group, to the continued red-Tory policies of Labour under Starmer, to the racism of the Reform candidate. Voters have every right to be livid. But Wakefield is right that Makerfield needs hope. So does…

Reform’s Makerfield candidate was a Remainer

Post author:Willem Moore
Post published:26 May 2026
Post last modified:8 June 2026

Robert Kenyon, Reform’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election, is reported to have voted to remain in the European Union. This could be something of a problem too because Reform wouldn’t exist if not for the campaign to leave the EU. NEW: Reform UK's Makerfield candidate Robert Kenyon said in 2019 that he did not vote for Brexit "Anyone who thinks I love Trump, voted Brexit… is wrong… I woke up the day after Brexit shitting myself to what was voted for" [@thetimes] — Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) May 26, 2026 Reform Remainiac As Skwawkbox reported for the Canary, Kenyon has links to known…

Reform is panicking about a party to its right in Makerfield

Post author:Willem Moore
Post published:24 May 2026
Post last modified:8 June 2026

Reform UK was once an insurgent political party that aimed to steal hard-right voters from the Tory Party. At first, it seemed like Reform’s goal was to force concessions from the Tories — much like how UKIP did with the Brexit referendum. Surprising many, however, Reform actually ended up overtaking the Tories in the polls. In response, Farage attempted to replace the Conservatives completely by softening some of the rhetoric and accepting bus-loads of Tory defectors. Predictably, this led to another insurgent political party emerging — this time seeking to steal hard-right voters from Reform UK. The party in question is…

A fox is running in Makerfield by-election to challenge Hunting Act loopholes

Post author:Antifabot
Post published:22 May 2026
Post last modified:8 June 2026

A brave animal advocate has announced he will throw his hat into the ring for the upcoming Makerfield by-election. But there’s a catch. He’s going to be running dressed as a giant fox. Robert Pownall aims to directly defy Labour and its failure to strengthen the Hunting Act. This stunt is a direct message to Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, as he attempts to re-enter Westminster. Chasing accountability with tail held high Pownall is the founder of wildlife protection organisation Protect the Wild and confirmed his bid for parliament on Friday 22 May 2026. His campaign will see him scurrying around…