A car rolls past the television cameras and reporters thronging the high street in Ashton-in-Makerfield, the window is wound down, and a voice from within shouts: “Andy Burnham!”
Such enthusiastic support for a Labour politician is perhaps unexpected here, given that Reform won 24 out of 25 seats when voters in this borough, Wigan, went to the polls last week, and Starmer’s party came away with nothing.
