This by-election may well determine the future course of our country. No drama. It could be a

turning point, a sliding doors moment. I'm talking, of course, about Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater

Manchester for now, standing in Makerfield in Greater Manchester, with the intention that

then overthrowing Kirstama and becoming leader of the Labour Party and prime minister of this country.

Now, I don't want to do one of two things.

One, blindly get sucked up in Burnham Mania, so to speak, or two, do a hatchet job.

What I'm going to do here is try to be fair, to be accurate, and to ask the right questions.

Now, a major reason that a lot of people have

scepticism and concerns is that Kirstama, quite notoriously stood to be leader of the Labour

Party in 2020, standing on a platform of radical pledges like public ownership, hiking taxes on the

well off, abolishing student tuition fees, putting human rights at the heart of foreign policy, we could go on.

He even set these out as ten pledges with his signature and everything.

And as we know, this was all a con, simply a ruse to deceive Labour members into voting for him

so he could crush the left and literally drag Labour in the exact opposite direction.

Dishonesty is deeply corrosive to democracy and that has left many feeling pretty cynical

about Labour politicians who come along and offer progressive things.

Now, Andy Burnan is not just Labour's most popular politician.

He is the most popular politician in the country.

According to Ipsos, he's on

plus 8 compared to minus 18 for West Streeting and minus 28 for Kyr Stama. If voters had to choose

between Labour governments or reform governments, Burnham has a lead of plus 16 over Farage compared

to plus 11 for Stama and plus seven for streeting. Among adults in Northern

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