Driving into Bryn, one of the first things you notice is two houses with their colours firmly nailed to the mast. One has an Andy Burnham poster in the window and a "Vote Andy" garden stake. Next door looks like Reform party HQ.
Further into the town – one of the collection of small suburbs and ex-coal mining areas on the outskirts of Wigan that make up the Makerfield constituency – and the picture is similar. Labour, Reform and Restore posters in neighbouring houses.
The battle lines have clearly been drawn. Walking around the area and talking to people, two things become crystal clear: People know who they're voting for. And they're angry.
Red Wall Seat Under Pressure
A safe Labour seat since its inception in 1983, the constituency is the archetypal "Red Wall" seat. Row upon row of red brick houses in a fiercely proud northern town that has suffered the effects of post-industrialisation.
The mines have long gone and the largely white, working-class population that once would have "voted for a pig in a red rosette" is no longer a safe bet for a Labour Party that Andy Burnham says has "lost touch" with its voters.
Burnham, the Labour candidate who hopes to challenge Keir Starmer's leadership if elected, is the odds-on favourite with the bookies. His posters appear to outnumber his rivals by around two to one in some areas and plenty of people said they were voting for him.
Divided Streets and Families
But this will be no cake walk for the man dubbed the King of the North. As we discussed the amount of rival posters in neighbouring houses, one woman said it felt like a re-run of the Brexit referendum, with families and streets divided by political opinion.
A pregnant mum said she would be voting for Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain, highlighting concerns about immigration, and said: "Andy Burnham is still Labour. I don't think anything will change."
In a local bakery, Polish owner Martin Wysocki had a Restore Britain poster in his window. He said he hadn't yet made up his mind as to who he would vote for. But he said he was fed up of politicians making promises and not keeping them.
He said politicians did not know what it was like to struggle on low wages and were out of touch with their constituents. He raised concerns about the cost of hotels housing asylum seekers and thought Keir Starmer just "doesn't care".
Disruption and Civic Shame
Others were just fed up of all the disruption to their lives. Some said they didn't think the by-election should even be taking place. They said they'd already voted for their MP two years ago and now believe he was standing aside to let his mate have a crack at the top job.
Some people felt a sense of civic shame that the by-election had been called while major regeneration works were taking place in Ashton, the focal point of much of the press coverage, showing the town to the nation while it wasn't looking its best.
Economic Frustration
There was anger at the pace of change of the high streets, which have seen a surge in vape stores, mini-marts and barber shops, and how the economic system doesn't seem to work for them, itself a key Andy Burnham campaign argument.
A lot of people were now fed up of being asked questions by journalists from London who had never shown any interest in the area. And when I told them I was from Warrington – home of Wigan Warriors' arch rival rugby league team – they were even angry at me.
But the main target of their anger was politicians they'd seen as having failed them. One traditional Tory voter said he "hates Nigel Farage", but would hold his nose and vote for Reform anyway because he "hates Andy Burnham more".
And it was the prime minister they were most angry at. As one Reform voter, who admitted Burnham was likely to win, said: "At least he'll make a better prime minister than Keir Starmer."
