Never interrupt a winning streak: that is the first rule of the dopamine-addled casino junkie. If Andy Burnham wins the jackpot in Makerfield, expect him to double down, to take even greater risks, culminating in the ousting of Sir Keir Starmer and, even more explosively, the calling of a snap general election. Makerfield isn’t an ordinary by-election. It is a decisive battle in the war for Britain’s soul, the harbinger of a revolutionary moment, of a paradigm shift. The fallout could, within months, lead to an entirely new government, with a terrifyingly high probability of a radical Leftist coalition committed to obliterating conservative Britain.

I’m feeling even more pessimistic than usual: Burnham is on a roll, and could pull off not just one but a series of historic triumphs for the Left against a divided and unprepared Right. If the so-called King of the North wins in Makerfield, defeating Reform’s plumber-cum-candidate, Burnham will move to replace the Prime Minister. He will surely succeed, for all of Wes Streeting and Al Carns’s protestations: Burnham will be the heroic figure who saw off Nigel Farage and can woo Brexiteers. Burnham is a grossly over-rated weathervane, a huckster who has claimed credit for other people’s legacies and who shamelessly exaggerates Manchester’s rebirth, but Labour will embrace him as their last hope, the only man with a chance of rebuilding a viable coalition, appealing to working-class voters and Green radicals alike. They love his black bomber jackets and his T-shirts. He will win the leadership.

Yet as soon as he waltzes into Downing Street, he will have........

© The Frontier Post (Editorial)