Today's by-election... how do you think it will go?

[Westfacing]

A few months back according to the media it was Reform's for the taking - now it's a three-way bet between Labour, Greens and Reform

The outcome of this vote and indeed UK politics at the moment, is a bit like your path being blocked and having to choose which type of dog shit to walk in.

Yep. I had a very depressing conversation about the country & politicians today.

A good friend & his wife have just joined reform.

trying to tactfully ask 'WTF' especially guvs. They have a disabled (adult) son 🙇🏻‍♀️

he was on a right one today. Reform are great, I'm apparently just 'easily swayed by bad media...& he knows what he's talking about 🙄🙇🏻‍♀️

that said, if I had to bite tomorrow j don't know WTF I'd do as I donate any if then.

i want an adult to step in & sort this shit show out! 🥲

I think it’ll be a Labour hold.

I was hoping there would be some sort of exit polling! I wonder how the vibes are at the count

I thought they were waiting till tomorrow working hours to begin counting. Makes sense when it's not part of a GE.

Can live with Greens winning. I would like to see how they do with the challenge of actually running an area and all the messy compromises that involves. If Labour get it that's fine. Not as big a deal as the media make out if they don't though. Just please spare us Reform and the nauseating Matt Goodwin getting a victory.

Labour & Reform are saying it’s too close to call but the Greens are making very confident noises. If they have won, it will be a landmark in British politics for them to take a seat which isn’t mainly white & graduate / middle class demographically.

Whatever the outcome there will be controversy, there are already reports of concerns from polling staff about family voting. It’s imperative we keep
our voting system as fair and clean as possible.

I’m surprised about the support for the Greens, Polanski is as dangerous as Farage!

OK, having looked at commentary it seems they are starting the count now. Results in the early hours. Wish I had the energy to stay up!

I had never heard of family voting - which is illegal - but apparently it's going on all over Gorton.
None of this is good

What’s family
voting

I think it's probably too close for them to be able to do a reliable exit poll.

Basically. husbands telling wives and possibly other family members how to vote.

Family voting means 2 people go into a polling booth.
Realistically adult males take women into the booth to make sure they vote the correct way.

I think Labour messed up by not letting Burnham run, although I think that was more becuase they were scared to lose the Mayorality than becuase Starmer was sacred to have him in the Commons.

I don't think Reform have run a good campaign, but it doesn't seem to matter for Regorm supporters.

I'm a proper lefty, with environmental interests, but the Greens have moved very far left, too left even for me.

I fear the Left leaning vote will be split letting Reform in.

If this was genuinely happening, then it is obviously wrong, but how would this even be allowed?

And if it really was happening, why on earth didn't this group raise it earlier in the day? Surely you would flag such issues straight away?

I can't really see why you would wait until after10pm to raise such concerns, unless you were deliberately seeking to cast doubt on the validity of the result.

I've gone with my family to vote. There's no coercion. Have also worked in polling stations and seen many a couple and their children. It happens all the time.

Dogs are not allowed in the polling stations, unless guides/support.

Even if the Greens come close that would be a fantastic result for them given they have never ranked anywhere in that seat. This was one of labours top 50 safe seats. This area has been voting labour for nearly 100 years.

Sectarian politics finally reaches England.

If Hamas put up a candidate in this by-election they would have won.

I’m not sure how we resolve this but one thing is for sure it is not in any way beneficial for the UK. The future looks very bleak.

Exactly

The returning officer has apparently said they didn't have any concerns

So I have no idea what is correct and what's not, but it's a really ugly situation.

Yes, I've also been to the polling booth with my DH. We do discuss how we're going to vote before we go in, but we don't always vote in exactly the same way.

The suggestion from a pp above seems to be that people are going into the polling booths with family members. I can't imagine this being allowed, but it is the only way in which you could actually seek to control how someone else votes.

I mean, obviously you could put pressure on family members to vote a certain way, but ultimately, in the privacy of the ballot box, they can do whatever they like, so it would only work if someone was right there looking over their shoulder. Which seems unlikely?

I can't see why people who were planning this wouldn't just get a postal vote. I must be incredibility easy to "family" vote with a postal vote.

Hmm. The guy on Sky News is now saying that the observer group did flag concerns earlier in the day. So hard to work out what's going on.

Re. family voting, surely men that way inclined would be requesting postal votes for their family? It's impossible to prevent.

It seems odd that, if you were that way inclined, you would do it in such an obvious way in a polling station. A postal vote would be much less risky.

It's very unlikely. Basically the polling officer can see you're all from the same address and in that case says that unless there's a reason for you to be with the person in the very small booth, eg disabled, then it's not permitted.

Lots of disabled people do like to vote in person. Some prefer a postal vote.