It’s the day after Josh Simons stepped down as MP and every journalist and their mum is in Makerfield, where Andy Burnham will likely soon be standing in a by-election. In the constituency’s busiest town, Ashton-in-Makerfield, TV cameras line the roadsides. Hacks walk the morning streets with notebooks sticking out their back pockets. A reporter from the Liverpool Echo walks by, telling a camera something about how, ultimately, the majority of people in Makerfield appear to be backing Burnham. But that’s not what I’ve been hearing.

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And while he’s not yet technically in the running, one thing for certain is that everyone in Ashton-in-Makerfield has seen Burnham out jogging. It’s possible that the Mayor’s running route alone will land him a seat at the head of the country. ‘What do you think of him, whether or not you’ll vote for him?’ I ask every local, shopper, or shop owner I talk to, and more than once I get the response: ‘I don’t know him, do I!’ and then moments later, ‘but I’ve seen him out jogging.’ Three or four people inform me that they know where he lives, but that they won’t be telling. One woman at a local cafe tells me that her partner’s son used to play out with his son. Still, she’ll be voting Reform.

And she’s far from the only one. Burnham’s much-touted likeability is alive in Ashton (virtually everyone I talk to speaks fondly of his tenure as mayor, and believes that Burnham sincerely cares about the area), but you don’t need me to tell you that Labour’s likeability is in the bin. While the parliamentary seat has been Labour for the entire 43 years it’s existed, last week’s local election saw every contested ward in the........

© The Spectator