Richard Burgon, political genius?

Richard Burgon is not going to be Labour’s next deputy leader. Burgon trails the favourite Angela Rayner by some 42 points, according to the latest YouGov poll. While Rayner has been nominated by 363 constituency parties, Burgon is backed by just 75. This places him third, behind Dawn Butler, in the race to become number two in the Labour party, with little prospect of making up the numbers he needs to win. But just because Burgon won’t win, it doesn’t mean his campaign hasn’t been successful.

Burgon’s supporters certainly aren’t fazed. Take the hundred or so who gathered together last week at a meeting to support Burgon’s campaign. The meet-up was organised by Chorlton socialist club, an activist group in the heart of radical south Manchester’s Guardian-reading muesli belt. Made up of a mixture of veterans fighting capitalism since the 1970s and those in their twenties who joined the Labour party just to support Jeremy Corbyn, this band of Burgon brothers (and sisters) might have been few but they were surprisingly happy.