Why is the Gorton and Denton by-election so important?

It looks like it will be a three-horse race (Picture: PA/Getty)

You’d be forgiven for thinking that today’s Gorton and Denton by-election in Manchester is a potentially earth-shattering, epochal, life-or-death moment for Sir Keir Starmer.

Especially if you’ve been going a little heavy on the political journalism.

Yes, we reporters do like to overegg these things. In the end, last year’s Reform by-election victory over Labour in Runcorn and Helsby told us one thing: people in...