Prepare for the weirdest by-election of all time in Makerfield

Labour, on the other hand, appears to have reacted to the shoeing the voters gave them by doing the exact opposite, and giving every impression they do take the electorate for granted.

Internal squabbles, personality cults, weaponising internal party processes that look baffling at best and batty at worst to the casual onlooker. The government have embraced the lot.

For those wondering what the impact of the years of Conservative chaos would be, we now know. A new generation of politicians has embraced the skullduggery and silliness that ran through the May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak years as the new normal.

Josh Simons is one of that new generation, having been elected for Makerfield in 2024. He used his maiden speech to talk about ‘respecting and representing’ the people. He’s not going to do the latter for much longer and the manner and reasoning for quitting his seat begs some questions about the former. With his ministerial ambitions on ice after it turned out the Labour Together think tank, of which he’d previously been director, tried to discredit some pesky journalists, he’s decided to abandon parliament altogether so Andy Burnham can take his place.

Luckily, our democracy still hangs together, and the only folk who can ‘let’ Burnham represent Makerfield are those who live there.

The forthcoming by-election campaign is going to be one of the weirdest of all time. Will the current Labour leader really sanction a no-holds-barred drive to get someone elected who wants his job? The Greens and Reform will have no such shackles on their efforts.

And who could blame voters if they decide to show they will not be taken for granted in such a style? Perhaps the best result for democracy would be something out of left field – a plucky resident winning on a local issue or similar.

The last week has been a farrago, with the main beneficiary likely to be Farage.

Westminster watchers look on, some delighted and some despairing at the soap opera. Voters look away, repulsed by the self-indulgence. Then they look at their bank balance, the potholes in local roads, the tatty High Street and the wait time for a GP appointment and they wonder when politicians of any stripe will do something to help.

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James Millar is senior counsel at Connect public affairs and former political correspondent for Scotland’s Sunday Post.

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