THE WRITING was seemingly on the wall before official vote counting as even started – “Reform have wiped the floor with Labour.”
One seasoned observer who knows Denton like the back of his hand called it early. The town had seemingly voted for Matt Goodwin.
What was not known until later – almost six hours later – was that Hannah Spencer had more than covered that margin.
The fallout will be felt for a while, not least in Denton – although the ‘stop the boats’ narrative portrayed by some does not exactly apply to the town’s reservoirs.
As well as journalists, The Correspondent team also became expert comment moderators as some not worthy of publicity were made, then deleted.
But as the nation’s media, TV crews on a platform and radio and newspaper journalists buzzing about the floor – fuelled by a stall that served the hottest cappuccinos the world has ever seen, waited – and waited, the mood lightened.
For the Monster raving Loony Party made its mark. Its candidate Sir Oink A Lot was joined by Johnny Disco and supporters wearing a giant top hat and a huge pair of underpants, over his trousers, bearing the slogan, ‘RU feeling y-front fatigue.’
And as awkward meetings go, the one between Mr Goodwin and a Raving Loony supporter was up there with the best.
Fatigue was a word on many people’s minds as the clock passed 2am, then 3am and 4am and ticked towards 5am.
Especially considering The Correspondent was outside Denton’s Victoria Park Community Centre at 7.10am after polling stations opened.
Several of the other ‘minor’ candidates lapped it up. Rejoin EU’s Joseph O’Meachair taking selfies with others and the SDP’s Sebastian Moore handing out chocolates.
When the main ones came, Labour’s Angeliki Stogia shared a few minutes with her team, exchanging hugs and laughter with supporters.
To her credit she then spent time with people from other parties talking about and praising some of their work.
Then the sign of flashbulbs at the other end of the room at Manchester Central (it will always be GMEX to us) meant Matt and Hannah had entered.
The stern faces on the Reform UK conflab told a tale – they knew the game was up.
Although, it is fair to say Hannah took her time as people hung around, with comments including: “Where are they?” and “Is that what we’re doing, just waiting for her?”
One Labour backer even suggested the result should have been declared without her. Beds were calling – loudly.
Once it was, media scrums followed two people around the room. Chairs turned into collateral damage.
And the absence of one person from the whole event spoke louder than the victor, the losers, the moaners, the supporters.
“The big sign will be if Farage turns up,” the onlooker told The Correspondent. “He’ll only turn up if Reform win.”
Farage never came – the people of Gorton and Denton were making other plans for Nigel.