The winner of the Gorton and Denton by-election is clear for everyone to see but for the many who came up short the picture is far more complicated.

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It goes without saying that the biggest loser is Sir Keir Starmer. His judgement on everything from staff appointments to the Chagos Islands appears calamitous.

To spend so much political capital on blocking Andy Burnham only to see it blow up in such a spectacular fashion is beyond embarrassing and heaps yet more pressure on him.

This comes as he struggles to remove himself from the mess of his own making following a series of dizzying U-turns that have seen support for both his party and himself haemorrhaging.

To put last night into context, Gorton and Denton had been the sixth safest Labour seat. Less than two years ago the party scored almost half of the vote in a........

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