Rochdale's Member of Parliament, the Labour MP Sir Tony Lloyd recently passed away and a by-election to replace him will be held on 29th Feb.
The whole thing has turned into a complete circus.
The Reform party candidate is Simon Danczuk, who used to be the Labour MP until he was found sexting a teenager and got deselected for the 2017 election.
George Galloway, the pro-Palestine, pro-Putin candidate, is standing on a pro-Gaza ticket, designed to appeal to the many muslim voters in Rochdale.
Guy Otten, the Green party candidate, is no longer endorsed by the Green party due to anti-muslim tweets surfacing. (It's too late to remove him from the ballot as nominations have closed).
And video has emerged of Azhar Ali, the Labour candidate, spouting conspiracy theories about how Israel "let" the Oct 7th massacre happen because they wanted an excuse to flatten Gaza. It's too late to remove him from the ballot too, but Labour could have done what the Greens have, and removed their endorsement of him. Instead they're continuing to endorse him in return for an apology.
The only wholesome candidate is Paul Ellison, the Conservative candidate. He's responsible for local initiatives such as "Rochdale in Bloom" to plant more flowers in the town.
But it's unlikely that working class Rochdale will ever vote Conservative.