‘There was a cameraman in the bloody pie shop’, my auntie tells me as she complains about the press coverage Makerfield has recently received. All the attention – ‘horrendous’, she says – might be pretty common for a British by-election, but in journalism it’s rare to have such a personal connection to an election like this. Makerfield is where my mother grew up, and her family still lives in the area. My grandma still lives in the ex council house she has lived in for nearly seven decades, off the Wigan Road. Naturally, I have turned to my relatives to ask about the election, particularly my aunt Cath, a retired careworker.
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Makerfield is being talked about as the most historic by-election in modern British history, given the constituents could be electing the next prime minister. But the idea that Andy Burnham is making a brazen bid for No. 10 doesn’t seem to bother my family – he remains popular – but they do bemoan the election itself. It has had a ‘detrimental effect’ on the area, my aunt tells me. ‘The immigration issue has been brought to Makerfield’. Some ethnic minorities have complained about feeling unsafe since the campaign began. ‘The borough is going backwards’, my aunt sighs.
