“Maybe Labour, even though they say they will contest every seat, have deliberately chosen someone that isn’t a threat to the Green candidate.”
Why is Labour helping out the Greens in a Labour held seat? It might make some tactical sense if it was a by-election in a seat Labour never did well in and had no chance of winning. But Labour has held the seat for years (it was Gerald Kaufman’s constituency).
The opinion polls show Labour could have won the seat easily if Burnham had been permitted to stand. Instead Starmer put his own interests ahead of his party and has handed Reform the chance of an electoral and propaganda victory.
If Reform wins, I don’t see how Starmer can continue. His enemies within Labour will be emboldened by the charge he has stupidly lost a by-election to his main opponents when he should have won.
The Greens winning would be marginally less damaging but it still wouldn’t look good for him.