They flock to Makerfield from everywhere: canvassers and camera crews, MPs, peers and volunteers, from Swansea to Gateshead, 700 a day to help the Labour campaign. Every door has already been knocked four times, boasts the Burnham team.

How does it feel for voters to be the most important constituency in living memory? Most are quite pleased, bar the usual “we only see them round here when they want our votes”. But with a chance to choose a prime minister, never was a vote so valuable.

Beyond Britain’s fate, the world sees in Makerfield a signpost on far-right populism: here, reporters have arrived from Italy, Germany, Sweden and five different Japanese TV news channels, among others. Expecting great rallies and flag-waving marches, they are crestfallen at nothing much to film beyond sparse signs on stakes in front gardens. This is a local, shoe-leather, person-to-person campaign by all parties. Andy Burnham himself leaves a personal video message for anyone who’s out, recorded on their front door security camera to show he really was there, with no grandstanding as he dashes around undecideds across the small towns here.

What a high-risk gamble to trigger an election here, rolling the dice in a constituency where every council ward voted Reform in May, making up part of Wigan, where 64% voted Brexit. Against that, Wigan voted 66% for Burnham as mayor, and he is the only popular senior politician in the........

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