They are the towns that helped turn the northern Labour red wall Conservative blue at the last election. In Leigh, near Wigan, and Heywood, near Rochdale, voters did the almost unthinkable.
Until recently the ex-mining town of Leigh was one of the longest-held Labour seats. But then, in December 2019, James Grundy won the seat once held by former Health Secretary and current Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.
Similarly, Heywood - alongside neighbouring town Middleton - was always a Labour stronghold until Chris Clarkson won it for Boris Johnson's Tories. READ MORE:Rochdale councillors will no longer get a mobile phone as part of the job Political pundits widely perceived the shock of these working class communities turning blue as a
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