People are saying the Gorton and Denton by-election will be a showdown between the Greens and Reform. Between Zack Polanski’s barmy army of End is Nigh graduates and Nigel Farage’s insurgent movement of people peeved with the old order. I hope they’re right, for that really would illuminate the new battlelines in British politics.

The Greens will seek to build an Islamo-left alliance. A union of Muslim voters and middle-class graduates who are as one in their curious loathing of Israel

As Labour loses the will to live, and the Conservatives wither one defection at a time, it feels like the east Manchester seat will fall to one of those upstart parties. The area has been a Labour stronghold since before the Second World War. Labour won it with a 13,000 majority in the last General Election. But a lot has happened since then.

The Starmer machine’s blocking of Andy Burnham could play into the Greens’ hands. Polanski is banking on it. He gloated over the Burnham fracas, calling it further proof that ‘the Greens are the only progressive party capable of taking on and beating Reform’. Green activists are already swarming Gorton and Denton, so if any residents have seen odd-looking outsiders in keffiyehs and ‘Trans women are women’ badges, now you know why.

Reform has named its........

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