The Makerfield seat is on paper the ideal Reform by-election target. Labour has held the constituency since 1983 but its majority was slashed at the 2019 general election and two years ago it stood at just over 5,000, with Reform UK in second place on an 18.7% increase in vote share. The right-wing outfit also swept the board in council elections earlier this month. Luke Tryl, the UK director of More in Common, said Makerfield was “tailor-made for Reform to do well in” with two-thirds in the