Gorton & Denton: Reform wants to split the left, to save itself – try harder

Reform UK’s chairman, David Bull, stated on Newsnight last night, 26 February, that Labour would have won the Gorton and Denton by-election, if only they fielded Andy Burnham in the first place.

Now, that looks a little odd, doesn’t it? The second-place party is giving tips to the third-place party on how to beat them. The Canary has written a great deal about Labour being Reform-lite, but surely giving each other a leg-up is a bit much?

Only, if you were to consider it from Reform’s perspective, it makes complete sense. See, in order for the left vote to split, Labour would actually have to field someone, you know… on the left (yeah yeah, disclaimers to come).

Reform knows that; Reform needs that. It can’t survive the immigrant-bashing right vote being shared between itself, Labour, the Conservatives, and whatever the fuck Rupert Lowe is doing at the time. Or, to put it another way:

Starmer can’t even gift a seat to the far-right on a silver platter without fucking it up.

‘You would have won’

After a by-election that even frothing lefty indie outlets thought was going to be a close-run thing, the Greens ended up taking it by a wide margin.

On Newsnight the night of the by-election, Reform UK’s David Bull said:

Having spoken to lots of Labour voters, if you had fielded Andy Burnham, you would have won. Full stop. But Kier Starmer didn’t want him on the pitch. This is all about the preservation of Kier Starmer. It was a very bad mistake by the Labour Party.

Burnham, the popular Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, announced his intention to run in Gorton and Denton back in January. However, he was swiftly blocked by his party’s ruling body.

Burnham is frequently perceived as a viable left-wing alternative to Starmer for the head of the Labour Party. However, his road to the top would be much easier with a seat in the Commons, rather than the mayorship.

As such, Starmer couldn’t allow him the opportunity of a win. Even, that is, if it meant potentially handing the seat to Reform. Better the far-right than the near-left, ay?

Caveat time

I promised you caveats, and there are of course caveats. Burnham’s credentials as ‘actually left wing’ are severely questionable. Your Party’s Zarah Sultana recently pointed out that:

Andy Burnham played a key role in privatising our NHS while serving as Health Secretary.

Andy Burnham voted for the 2003 Iraq War — an illegal invasion that led to the deaths of over a million Iraqis.

Andy Burnham was a member of Labour Friends of Israel, an apartheid state that has committed genocide against the Palestinian people.

Gorton and Denton deserves a genuinely socialist MP — one who doesn’t vote for illegal wars, stands in solidarity with Palestine and is proudly anti-Zionist.

It’s a mark of how far Labour has fallen that Burnham now represents the leftward section of the increasingly right-wing party. But hey ho.

By contrast, Starmer’s Gorton and Denton pick was councillor Angeliki Stogia. Stogia supports NHS privatisation through ‘Private Finance Initiatives’, and has acted as a corporate lobbyist. Plus, she had Starmer’s backing — basically the right-of-center’s kiss of death.

Stogia won just 25.4% of the vote, in what was once a Labour safe-seat.

‘People are sick of them’

When Newsnight’s presenter Paddy O’Connell asked Zack Polanski if he agreed with Bull’s assessment, the Green leader replied:

No I don’t agree, actually. I think Andy Burnham is still a Labour Party politician, and I think people are sick of them.

Some polling has indeed suggested that Burnham would have won the seat, if he was permitted to run. We can never know precisely how that would have shaken out in real life, because Starmer would clearly rather cut off his own nose than allow the Labour right to lose its stranglehold on the party.

I wrote this piece somewhat tongue-in-cheek, talking about Starmer trying to gift the seat to Reform.

However, on a more serious note, the Green’s Hannah Spencer ran a fantastic campaign, taking an incredible 40.7% of the vote. She deserved the win on her own merit, Burnham or no Burnham. And now, Gorton and Denton has the left-wing MP it deserves.

Meanwhile, as their chairman demonstrated, Reform has been left rattled by Labour’s competition on the right. Personally speaking, they can fucking eat each other as far as I care.

Featured image via the Canary