Mailwatch(ed) Forum

It wouldn't necessarily help Burnham for the Greens to stand down. Zack's support might be off putting, smells of a stitch up and Green dustbin voters might go to Reform instead of Labour. Stand a paper candidate.

The Green Party's candidate for next month's Makerfield by-election has withdrawn from the contest only hours after he was announced.

Chris Kennedy, a registered nurse and children's safeguarding specialist, has pulled out of the process due to "personal and family reasons", the party has confirmed.

It will be reopening candidate nominations later.

The BBC understands Kennedy wanted to focus on the caring responsibilities of his family, and it was a joint decision between him and the party for him to stand down.

The Greens intend to make a decision about a replacement candidate on Monday. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq6pver77gpo

Só he wasn’t a paper candidate?

Polling day in the by-election now confirmed as 18 June, 1 month today.

Only 5 declared candidates, so far :

Andy Burnham, The Labour Party
The Labour Party has officially confirmed Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham as its candidate.

Burnham, a former Labour government minister, has been the region's metropolitan mayor since 2017.

Alan 'Howlin' Laud Hope, The Official Monster Raving Loony Party
The Official Monster Raving Loony Party has named its leader and co-founder - Alan Hope - otherwise known as Alan "Howlin" Laud Hope.

In a statement posted on social media, the party said: "We can confirm that our glorious leader Alan "Howlin" Laud Hope... will be standing against Andy Burnham in the forthcoming election in Makerfield."

Robert Kenyon, Reform UK
Reform UK has named Robert Kenyon as its candidate.

Kenyon is a self-employed plumber and stood in the constituency in the 2024 general election - coming second to Labour's Josh Simons.

Rebecca Shepherd, Restore Britain
The Restore Britain party has announced Rebecca Shepherd as its candidate.

Shepherd is a businesswoman and was the first candidate to be officially announced on Monday.

Michael Winstanley, The Conservative Party
The Conservative Party has named Michael Winstanley as its candidate.

Winstanley was the mayor of Wigan in 2010/11.

The Green candidate, who's now withdrawn, seems to be a "Jewish conspiracy maaaan" type of guy. (See the other thread).

I also take the view that everybody runs and you let people vote tactically if they want to. Greens and Labour run everywhere. Contrast that with the Brexit Party-Tory pact in 2019.

Lowe's outfit may well deprive Reform of this seat and a heated civil war has broken out among the headbangers. A delight to witness.

The ordinary patriotic working man can't even back Vladimir Putin without the toffs having a go

My dad is a working class man.

He worked several jobs across his career that involved engineering and what not.

He thinks Putin is a knob and actively supports Ukraine.
He isn't homophobic or racist

Not all working class men are the same, these people would do well to talk to those who disagree with them once in a while.

As ever, moron claiming to speak for group X is, in reality, patronising and undermining group X.

See also Brendan O'Shite from Spiked.

Even Kelvin thinks Robert Kenyon's an arsehole.

Robert Kenyon sounds like he needs some help from his party leader. Oh hang on.

Considering the actual leader of his Party is ex-KGB, has the official title of President, and his office is in the Kremlin...

Maybe Reform thought the Greens plucked Hannah the plumber off the street (she was the Green Manchester mayoral candidate). 'That's all we need to do, Nige and we have this by-election in the bag.'
Latest Kenyon gaff to emerge is that he voted Remain.

Reform keep imposing candidates on local parties really does seem to be very problematic. Matt Goodwin did well in the last by-election but a local candidate who knew the area and had the full backing of the local party would probably have won.
I know that the Reform candidate in Makerfield contested the seat at the last election but he probably received minimal scrutiny at the General Election because nobody thought he had a really chance of winning. Fighting a by-election is very different to fighting a General election because you are under the microscope for 6 weeks so any skeletons in your closet are bound to be discovered.

Reform is Nigel's company, they don't have constituency parties in the traditional sense. Just some chimps with near by addresses.

Burnham's campaign seems to be centred around a kind of cartoon image of himself.

Not at all sure whether this is working or not.

Who's Andy Forus?

Abernathy wrote: ↑Mon Jun 01, 2026 10:36 am Burnham's campaign seems to be centred around a kind of cartoon image of himself.

Not at all sure whether this is working or not.

It's over 50 years since I've seen Thunderbirds so I can't name the character, but that image definitely looks familiar.

Edit: perhaps I mean someone from Captain Scarlet?

Are you sure you don't mean Joe-90?

I think @Oboogie is thinking of 'Brains'.
Who was indeed in Thunderbirds.

(Having watched it in the past, I preferred Space Patrol - the British version, naturally.)