“I will vote for Andy, he’s a Northerner,” says 78-year-old Andrew Cobb, standing in the centre of Ashton-in-Makerfield.
It’s a good sign for Andy Burnham, the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester who dramatically announced he intends to stand as the party’s candidate here in a by-election.
Josh Simons, the current Labour MP for Makerfield, was only elected less than two years ago but has agreed to stand down to give Burnham a chance to turn around his party’s fortunes.
Mr Cobb is exactly the kind of voter Burnham needs to win over.
He told The i Paper he is a lifelong Labour voter who switched to Reform UK for the first time in last week’s elections where Nigel Farage’s party won 24 seats on Wigan Council, a pattern that was repeated across much of the North and the Midlands.
But Mr Cobb said he will be happy to vote Burnham in the by-election purely because of his reputation as a local lad.
“And I think he’d sort the trains out, he knows what they’re like,” he added.
Ashton in Makerfield will host a pivotal by-election in the coming weeks (Photo: Steve Morgan/The i Paper)Labour holds the Makerfield seat with a majority of 5,399 votes, an advantage Reform would expect to easily wipe out based on current national polling if it was up against any other candidate.
But Andy Burnham is not any other candidate in these parts.
Burnham, 56, was born in Aintree, Merseyside, but moved to the Warrington area as a child and has lived in Golborne since first becoming the MP for Leigh in 2001.
His children went to school in the area and Burnham’s early morning running trips are well-known to locals.
“He’s always out jogging in the morning near us, he’s like this bionic man,” said Natasha Harvey, a 52-year-old social worker.
“I’ve almost run him down in my car a few times. My dog bit him on the bum once! He was out running and my Frenchie run up and nipped him.”
Ms Harvey says she struggles to have much interest in politics, offering an opinion that is often repeated by voters in the current climate: “They’re all as bad as each other, why should I waste me time?”
But she still believes Burnham will win the by-election.
Natasha Harvey is a fan of Burnham, even after her dog ‘bit him on the bum’ while he was jogging locally (Photo: Steve Morgan/The i Paper)Farage said of the Makerfield by-election Thursday night: “Reform will throw absolutely everything at it.”
The party’s candidate who fell short in 2024 was Robert Kenyon, an Army veteran and plumber who has just been elected as a councillor in Bryn, another village in the Makerfield constituency.
The party may ask him to stand again and it is clear there is anger at Labour in the area.
“People did vote for Reform in the council elections and I think it’s a crying shame,” said Katrina Herrity, 47.
She said she is “terrified” by the prospect of a Reform victory in the by-election but she hopes Burnham’s local name recognition will prove a deciding factor.
Katrina Herrity says Burnham’s profile as Mayor of Greater Manchester would make a difference to voters (Photo: Steve Morgan/The i Paper)Ms Herrity, a former nurse, also said she thinks voters will be aware of Burnham’s achievements as Mayor of Greater Manchester.
“What he’s done for Manchester, that will be a big factor,” she said.
“He’s always himself. What you see is what you get. From what I’ve read, what he says he’s going to do he does.
“You need to give people time to make change. However, Keir Starmer… he’s not good at communicating.”
With a population of only 26,000 people, the sight of journalists and cameras swarming over the town of Ashton-in-Makerfield to speak to voters on Friday was a bemusing sight for some.
Ashton-in-Makerfield has a population of around 26,000 – and residents may now have a say in deciding the country’s next prime minister (Photo: Steve Morgan/The i Paper)“Today Ashton is famous!” said Osmand “Ozzy” Delikaya, a 49-year-old barber on the high street.
“I thought, ‘What’s going on?’ Then one of my customers said, ‘They’re here for Andy Burnham’.
“He was happy, he said he wants Andy Burnham to be prime minister, he’s our kid.”
Ozzy, who moved to England from Turkey 24 years ago, wisely says it is important he doesn’t get involved in politics or “delicate stuff” in his job as a barber.
But he noted that whoever wants to become the MP will need to make promises about sorting out recent problems with antisocial behaviour, adding the town has been plagued by a gang of teenagers causing misery for businesses.
Barber Osman Delikaya says he wants to see Burnham become prime minister (Photo: Steve Morgan/The i Paper)Ozzy has had his window smashed and been filmed when he confronted them.
But he is also very clear that however much immigration may be a contentious issue in Wigan, as in many other towns and cities in Britain, he has never been racially abused.
“I’ve had this shop for about 10 years, it’s a nice, lovely town. Nice people,” he said.
“People get on, they’re quite close, it’s not a big town, everyone knows everyone. My girlfriend went to high school in Ashton, when someone knows her they know me straight away.
“I’ve never had any discrimination, nothing racial, they’re really nice people. There’s a good spirit.”
Serena Jacques, 37, is another resident with a unique perspective on local politics.
She moved to England from Canada and is raising her three-year-old daughter Adalyn in Makerfield.
“It’s almost too friendly!” she joked.
“Everyone knows everyone – I go into the hairdressers and I don’t understand all the gossip.”
Ashton-in-Makerfield has found itself in the glare of international media coverage (Photo: Steve Morgan/The i Paper)Ms Jacques describes herself as an undecided voter at this stage.
“At this point a lot of the political parties have a lot going wrong,” she said.
“You want to vote for positive change – I will have to look at all of them. I voted Labour last time, at this point it’s the least of all evils.
“I do feel like they [Labour] have let people down, but I still think they are the better choice.”
In Hindley, another town in the Makerfield constituency, 38-year-old mum-of-four, Dani, was another Burnham supporter who believes he will see off Reform.
“If you ask anyone who knows anything about him, you know he’s been good for Wigan,” she said.
“He actually cares, he grew up round here.
“He knows what’s neeeded round here, he’s all about bringing things back to [the] North, he has our interests at heart.”
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