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WHY THE GREEN PARTY SHOULD STAND ASIDE IN MAKERFIELD I’m a Green Party member. I campaigned in Lewisham at the recent local elections and was ecstatic at the result, just as I was when Hannah Spencer won in Gorton & Denton. So why do I think that in Makerfield the Green Party should announce that if Andy Burnham stands we won’t be campaigning? The answer is quite simple. Unlike Gordon & Denton, where the Labour Party’s pathetic propaganda machine was insisting that only they could beat Reform, I do genuinely believe that (as long as Andy Burnham is selected as their candidate) it will be virtually impossible for the Green Party to win the seat. Whatever your opinions of him, it is undeniable that Andy Burnham is extremely popular in the North West. All the polling shows that he outperforms Labour by a mile. He is just about the only person who could win a seat for Labour at the moment, but I believe there is a very real chance that in Makerfield he will boost Labour’s vote significantly. And Makerfield is not Gorton & Denton. Looking at the 2024 General Election vote share, Reform is much stronger in Makerfield than in Gorton & Denton (31.8% v 14.1%). At the same time the Greens are much weaker (13.2% in Gorton & Denton in 2024, almost coming second – as opposed to 4.4% and fifth place in Makerfield). It may well be that, given the recent surge in popularity, the Greens would do significantly better in the upcoming by-election – but sadly all that would do is hand victory to Reform. Unlike in Gorton & Denton, there are simply not enough anti-Reform votes to be able to split the vote and still beat them. And let’s not fool ourselves. A win for Reform would be an utter disaster. Beating Andy Burnham would be their most high profile victory to date, and the momentum it would give them would further embolden them and make them seem unstoppable to many. They are already openly boasting about locking up thousands of people in migrant detention centres if they win the next election. We cannot allow that to happen. The simplest way to beat Reform at the next election is to do what should have been done decades ago – introduce PR. I have always argued for PR. It is the only fair voting system. The number of votes cast for each party should be reflected in the number of MPs that they get. If Reform get 26% of the votes, they should get 26% of MPs. That is the only democratic way of doing things. Andy Burnham has long been a supporter of a proportional representation. It is the single most important change that could happen in British politics. Therefore I believe that the Green Party should press Andy Burnham for two things: 1) A firm commitment to introduce PR 2) A pledge that if he is Labour leader, he will stop treating the Green Party as enemies who are as bad as Reform, and instead acknowledge that we are part of a broad progressive movement that will be needed to defeat Reform. If Burnham is prepared to do that, then I believe that the Green Party should announce that we will not be actively campaigning in Makerfield in order to increase his chances of beating Reform. I believe that such a move would have all sorts of positives. For one thing, the public at large would welcome it as a very different approach from the other parties, and it would actually boost the Greens’ popularity. More importantly, the alternative is too horrendous to contemplate. If the Greens do stand and the nightmare scenario unfolds – in other words Reform beat Labour thanks to the number of votes cast for the Green Party – then large numbers of people will be horrified at what we’ve done. Yes, of course it’s possible (maybe even probable!) that Andy Burnham might go back on any promises about PR and not demonising the Green Party – but then, if he does, the Greens can point to that as the reason why we will no longer cooperate, even in similar circumstances. And to be clear, I believe these are very exceptional circumstances. For example, if there’s a contest for the Manchester Mayor, I believe the Green Party should campaign wholeheartedly, and may very well win. Luckily the First Past The Post system doesn’t apply in mayoral contests now, so there is actually no danger of letting Reform in – but even if there had been, then in the Mayoral contest I think that is a chance we would have had to take, and hopefully as in Gordon & Denton, we would have come top anyway. To sum up: If, like me, you believe that there is very little to zero prospect of the Green Party actually winning in Makerfield, then the choice is simple. Either Reform win, with all the appalling consequences which that entails – or Andy Burnham wins, bringing about the downfall of Keir Starmer, which even on its own has to be a good thing, no matter how many of his promises Andy Burnham goes back on! Sometimes politics is about real choices. We have a real choice in Makerfield and I think the Green Party would be foolish to try to win at the risk of enabling a Reform victory. Pete Sinclair, May 2026