There have been shenanigans, s***stirring and enough hot air to create a new microclimate.
But there have also been complaints to the police, security details and an effigy placed outside a primary school.
With a week to go before voters head to the polls in Gorton and Denton there is no sign of the temperature dropping. From the kick-off this has been a nasty campaign.
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The backbiting and fighting among the three frontrunners – standing for Labour, the Green Party and Reform UK – has been, at times, brutal.
Pushing for change in an area held by Labour for decades are the Green Party’s Hannah Spencer and Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin – two bullish candidates diametrically opposed in their politics. Both mobilised quickly, pounding the pavements, leafleting like mad and being bombastically on brand during well-attended rallies.
Slower out of the blocks thanks to Labour’s headline-grabbing blocking of Andy Burnham and a long-winded selection process, was Angeliki Stogia. But even before Labour had picked a candidate, the party had seized on their rivals.
When Reform’s chief whip Lee Anderson appeared to start a campaign trail in the wrong constituency, Angela Rayner couldn’t resist poking fun at the party’s map reading skills.
The Greens were also mocked for a series of leafleting typos in which they misspelt Gorton as ‘Gorten’.
So far, so fair. Then things ramped up.
Reform announced they had reported Labour to Greater Manchester Police over an allegedly ‘misleading’ video attacking Mr Goodwin.
A few days later, Labour Party chair Anna Turley wrote to Mr Goodwin urging him to make clear whether he would welcome the support of far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who had appeared to endorse the Reform candidate on X.
Reform said they had been “consistently clear” that Robinson “isn’t welcome in the party”.
And when residents raised concerns about an endorsement letter for Reform that didn’t have a required marker confirming it had been produced for the party – they blamed the printers, who apologised.
Professor of political science Robert Ford was surprised to find himself featuring on two of the Greens’ leaflets and “taken out of context” – something the party apologised for.
Meanwhile, a Conservative party canvasser was caught on a doorbell camera taking a Reform leaflet out of a resident’s letter box in Denton and putting it in the bin.
And in the latest twist in the saga, police are investigating a complaint of ‘treating’ after a Labour event in Levenshulme during which it appears attendees were asked to hold up Labour flyers “ if you want to get fed”.
If you were under any illusion as to the savage nature of this campaign, you need only look at the leaflets that have dropped through the door.
Reform UK’s leafleting claims the Greens want to “open borders” and will “make Keir Starmer’s mess worse”.
Green leaflets say Reform “divides communities”, describes Mr Goodwin as an “out-of-town Reform candidate in it for himself” and claim Labour is “in chaos”.
Labour leaflets say “Reform’s racist candidate thinks non-white people can’t be British and has been backed by far-right convicted criminal Tommy Robinson” and claim the Greens are “misleading voters”.
On the ground, the anger generated by this by-election has trickled down to some strange tactics – some more disturbing than others.
On the one hand, you’ve got Labour sticking a massive poster right next to the Green Party headquarters – only for the Greens to respond in kind.
On the other, you’ve got someone leaving an effigy with a note saying “dead lefty f*** Greens” outside a primary school in Levenshulme. If that doesn’t shock you, I’m afraid you’ve lost all sense of perspective.
The truth is, nobody campaigning in Gorton and Denton has had an easy time over the last month.
Ms Stogia has the unenviable task of attempting to cling onto a seat for a party deeply wounded by scandal. As if the drama surrounding retiring Labour MP Andrew Gwynne wasn’t bad enough, her campaign started in earnest just as the full extent of Peter Mandelson’s alleged involvement with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein became clear.
It can’t have been an easy task campaigning under the Labour banner during what some have described as the worst scandal since the Profumo Affair.
Meanwhile, Ms Spencer has repeatedly had to contend with scrutiny over her personal life. She responded in a good natured way to claims she was married to a millionaire and owns a huge gated property in Hale with a weird chimney.
But she has put the scrutiny down to a vein of misogyny running through media coverage of the campaign.
As for Mr Goodwin, he was picked up by Ms Stogia during the Manchester Evening News hustings for using private security while he has ‘pedalled rhetoric’ she claimed has made others feel unsafe. But the Reform man said his security detail was necessary “because I have very real threats in an area where people assure me everything is fine”.
Reform UK and the Green Party both claimed in their literature that the contest is a “two-horse race”, with Labour battling for third – a suggestion they vehemently deny.
But it’s testament to the desperation of Labour to cling onto this formerly safe seat that they have brought out the big dogs. Sadiq Khan, Angela Rayner, Ed Miliband and of course ‘King of the North’ Andy Burnham have all shown up to offer their support for Ms Stogia.
For Labour, there is much at stake. A loss in Gorton and Denton could spell disaster for Keir Starmer whose opponents claim the by-election is a referendum on his government.
Ms Stogia has repeatedly accused her opponents of “shouting for the sidelines”, claiming that their untested policies would fall flat if they took over the reins of power. But there is much at stake for the Greens and Reform too.
A loss in an area where both claim to have easily hoovered up voters would sting. But Nigel Farage and Zack Polanski will be able to make hay with any outcome.
Both have no doubt gained voters during this by-election, even if their candidates lose. And both have proved that polarising politics has a place in the UK.
Throughout the campaign, the candidates have accused each other of spreading misinformation. So I’d urge anyone able to vote in the Gorton and Denton by-election next Thursday to research them all thoroughly – even The Official Monster Raving Loony Party’s Sir Oink-a-lot, who is promising to bring home the bacon.
There are eleven candidates hoping to take control of Gorton and Denton – and a basic annual salary of £93,904.
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