Written by Dave Taylor and Mike Shaughnessy
It is a waste of time for us to be criticising Andy Burnham, we know his history and his faults. He has already reassured the banks that he will not frighten the horses and the electors of Makerfield that they were pretty shrewd in voting for Brexit. The old chestnut goes “A Blairite, a Brownite and a Corbynite walk into a pub, and the barman says, “Usual is it, Andy?”
Reform is losing ground at the moment and the last two byelections where they expected to win they lost, first to Plaid and then to the Greens. A defeat in Makerfield would be a huge blow. In Gorton and Denton, George Galloway decided not to stand, saying “It was not in the interests of the working class”. Surely, there is room for Zack Polanski to say that it is not in the interest of anyone, except Farage’s multi- millionaire backers, for the Green Party to stand in Makerfield?
That is certainly the case. Polanski has already indicated he would be able to work with Burnham. To imagine that Makerfield could be another Gorton and Denton style win for the Green Party would be delusional.
Makerfield is not Gorton and Denton. Firstly, if Burnham had been the Labour candidate, they probably would have retained the seat. Secondly, that constituency is split between two Greater Manchester boroughs. Gorton is in Manchester itself, Denton is in Tameside. At the recent byelection, Gorton where two thirds of the voters live, the Green party came first by some margin, in Denton, Reform came first followed by Labour, with the Green vote just about holding up.
As natives of Manchester, we know there is a political difference between Manchester and most of Greater Manchester. Another example was the EU referendum, where Manchester (along with Trafford and Stockport) voted to remain whilst the other seven boroughs in Greater Manchester voted to leave, including Wigan, where Makerfield is.
In the recent local elections, Reform scored an impressive 50% of the vote, which suggests that if these voters are abandoning Labour, they are likely to move to voting for Reform.
Burnham is more popular than his party at present, in Greater Manchester and elsewhere. He is probably the only politician that could beat Reform in Makerfield, with opinion polls showing him holding a small advantage over them.
The Green party is riding high in the at present. A low vote or a lost deposit, quite possible in our view, could well slow the momentum of the last twelve months. Not standing would achieve a whole lot more respect and auger well for working with other progressive forces in future. Surely, stopping Reform winning the next General Election has to be high on our priorities?
And what if Burnham was to lose by less than the Green Party vote? Perhaps unlikely but certainly scary. I guess that most us would be voting for Burnham if we had a vote in this byelection. That`s what tactical voting to defeat Farage means.
Dave Taylor and Mike Shaughnessy
We are members of the Green party of England and Wales and Green Left supporters
As a long-time Green Party member, I share your concern. But the revived Green Party is very uppity. My local party has debated this, and the mood is against tactical voting - and against Burnham.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree. It is a clear case of country above party. Now, try to convince my local Green branch that doesn't agree with me on this. It will be a strategic error for the Greens to run a full campaign against Andy, not because he is 'perfect' but rather because it will create unnecessary animosity at a time when a progressive alliance is needed to keep the fascists out of government. In the meantime, you may wish to check: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1063294246028238&set=a.313795854311418
ReplyDeleteRestore will take a lot of votes from Reform and are gunning for it. Having made Labour the problem under all our messaging under Zack it would be mad not to stand and go for it. I would say Zack should stand and point out the differences between Labour and their corporate cronies and the Greens. We should not be molly coddling the Labour Party, it is a by election three years out from a general election and we should not enable them
ReplyDeleteThis is an extremely bad idea to stand down a Green Party Candidate in the upcoming bye election in order to give Andy Burnham a clear shot at the Labour Party Leadership but which is posited as a tactic to stop Reform. A serious misjudgement after it has been shown in the recent Denton and Gorton Bye election win that the Green Party can beat both Labour and Reform and a win which has done so much for the morale of Local Green Parties.Standing down for a Labour Party which is at the worst it has ever been, a Political Party which has been completely captured by the Zionist Israeli lobbying Machine and is still defending their Genocidal Warmongering and well as corrupting our legal system in order to break popular resistance to Israeli Terror with mass arrests and imprisonment. If the Green Party makes this decision both Green Party members and Green Party voter would be betrayed and it would seriously damage the GPEW credibility with the general public.
ReplyDeleteMakerfield is not Gorton.
DeleteHad Burnham been a candidate for Gorton and Denton he would have won hands down and be an MP by now, challenging Starmer..
Delete"Had Burnham been a candidate for Gorton and Denton he would have won hands down and be an MP by now, challenging Starmer.." So you're saying that Gorton and Denton is the same as Makerfield or not? Because others above and in the article are saying that it's different.
DeleteHum.. that is not what I am saying. I just stated a fact: had Burnham been allowed to stand in Gorton and Denton, he would have won by a landslide and would be challening Starmer for the leadership of the LP and therefore PM's job. But Makersfiled is nothing like Gorton and Denton demographically. It is a largely white working class constituency with no students population and hardly any muslims. Hannah Spencer benefitted from both of those factors . Being an attractive female plumber who also loves dogs and had Zack's active backing probably did help with her social media campaign. We also have had the local elections where out of the 72 seats up for election, Labour retained an overall control with 42 seats and Reform gained 25 seats. 6 out of the 8 wards in the Makerfield constituency of Makerfield went from Labour to Reform. constituency. In addition, the last Labour candidate at the 2024 GE Josh Simons got a majority of 5399 . Makersfield has become a highly marginal seat. The latest poll show Labour and Reform UK a close call. The
DeleteI have just finished working for the Greens in Hackney where we wiped the floor with Labour but we SHOULD NOT STAND in Makerfield.
ReplyDeleteWho remembers Jo Swinson ? She got overexcited by Lib Dem successes on the back of their support for Remain / Rejoin. She wouldnt hear of a deal with Corbyn`s Labour, wanted to fight every constituency. Result ?? Jo lost her seat, her party got hammered, and the country got Johnson. Please please please Green comrades - dont make the same mistake
Spot on. Yes - Burnham has lots of negatives, but risking a creeping fascist win is worse. The Greens could make it clear that, by standing down, their aim is to stop a creeping fascist - not to give a blank cheque to Burnham & Labour. As someone said recently: "Deal with the slaughterman first - then the butcher!"
ReplyDeleteAgreed 100%
DeleteI'm afraid this will backfire. If the Greens could have stopped Reform from winning the national elections but they didn't do so, they placed party above country. In this respect they are no different from other parties.
ReplyDeleteIt is a mistake for any party to imagine that it owns its voters and can assign them to another party at will, by not standing itself. Very few Green voters are died in the wool greens. If they are inclined to vote Green to give Labour a bit of a kicking they won't vote Labour just because there is no Green. Their priority will still be to give Labour a kicking.
ReplyDeleteYou are twisting reality to fit your weak argument. Nobody is assigning anything to anyone. The focus is elsewhere. Whether you like it or not, ultimately the Green Party can step down from this one and never carry the historical stigma that it empowered the next fascist government run by millionaires to take over - and yes, you can also forge Net Zero too under a Farage fascist rule. It is frustrating, disappointing, immature, and silly to put forward the argument that this is somehow about democratic choices. No, it is not. There is a wider picture which you choose to ignore, the nightmare of a fascist government, and this supersedes your other priorities easily for it has to do with the country as a whole.
Delete'Unite against the Far Right' has been the Left's rallying cry of the year, for example at the 28 March 'Hope Not Hate' march in London. These are empty words if the Greens divide the vote in Makerfield.
ReplyDeleteBurnham smashing all records in a ' behind the red wall' working class constituency with 55% of the vote, a turn-out of nearly 60% and beating Reform UK + Revoke combined with a 6000 majority would seem to be evidence that there is still some life left in the Labour Party. For Zack Polanski to declare that his aim as Leader of the Green Party is "to beat Reform" and "replace Labour" is not only utterly delusional, but could destroy the Green Party as a trusted member of the progressive majority. He has to go.
ReplyDelete