By-Electioncast: Everything You Need To Know About Makerfield
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, the Makerfield by-election has been confirmed for June 18th 2026, and this is the first episode in a new mini-series following the contest as it gets underway.
Adam is joined by Luke Tryl, director of More in Common UK, and Kevin Fitzpatrick, political reporter for BBC Radio Manchester, to delve deeper into Makerfield, and to look at how the race is shaping up with the candidates who have been announced so far.
A full list of candidates and loads more information about the Makerfield by-election is available on the BBC News website.
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The presenter was Adam Fleming. It was made by Miranda Slade with Gabriel Purcell-Davis. The social producer was Jem Westgate. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.5 | With American politics, everything seems to be changing by the second. |
| 0:11.9 | Yeah, sometimes the news does a full 180 while we're recording the podcast. |
| 0:16.4 | It can be a difficult job, but we stay up to date on your behalf. |
| 0:19.9 | Makes sense of what's happening in the US with new podcast episodes throughout the week. |
| 0:24.2 | AmeriCast. Listen on BBC Sound. |
| 0:27.7 | Hello, we're launching a new limited mini series of the back of the success of Electioncast, |
| 0:33.5 | and we're calling it by Electioncast, so you can guess what the theme of this series is about. |
| 0:39.8 | Some news has actually happened since we recorded the first episode on Thursday afternoon. |
| 0:43.7 | The Green Party has said that its former Makerfield by-election candidate has apologised for sharing social media posts, |
| 0:50.4 | which describes an attack on ambulances run by a Jewish charity in North London as a |
| 0:55.2 | false flag. Chris Kennedy had been announced as the party's candidate on Thursday, but withdrew |
| 1:01.3 | just a couple of hours after that announcement with the Greens citing personal and family reasons. |
| 1:06.6 | So we will be recording these episodes every Friday for the next three weeks. |
| 1:13.6 | But here is a primer, which we recorded on Thursday afternoon, |
| 1:19.7 | about why this election is so important and some of the themes and some facts about Makerfield, |
| 1:21.6 | the constituency as a place. |
| 1:26.9 | And if we're launching a new series, then that means we need to launch some new trademark newscast, in this case by-election cast, opening titles. |
| 1:30.8 | Newscast. |
| 1:31.5 | Newscast from the BBC. |
| 1:33.2 | The political circus is coming to town. |
| 1:35.7 | We're making a feel like to give them one heck of a responsibility. |
... |
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