Voters in Rochdale are heading to the polls today in a by-election triggered by the death of former Labour MP Sir Tony Lloyd, who passed away in January following a cancer diagnosis.

       The campaign for the Greater Manchester constituency has been marred by chaos and ugly scenes with candidates receiving death threats and Labour withdrawing its support for its candidate in the race over comments he made on the Israel-Hamas war.

       The Rochdale contest is the latest in a string of recent by-elections triggered by deaths, resignations and MPs losing their constituencies for bad behaviour.

       Since the start of the current parliament in December 2019, there has been a total of 21 by-elections across the UK - two of which have taken place in Scotland with the remainder being held in England.

       Labour and the Liberal Democrats have, at the expense of the Conservatives, gained seven and four seats respectively.

       Keir Starmer’s party has held five of its seats while the Tories managed to hold one, scraping a narrow victory - 495 votes - in Uxbridge & South Ruislip, a contest that was dominated by the expansion of Ulez in outer London.

       The SNP held on in the one seat it was defending in Airdrie and Shotts, with the party’s candidate Anum Qaisar winning comfortably with a majority of 8,779.

       Labour was hoping for its sixth consecutive by-election victory in Rochdale but the party’s plans were damaged when Azhar Ali was recorded saying that Israel had “allowed” Hamas’s 7 October terror attack to take place.

       Although Mr Ali’s name still appears as a Labour candidate on the ballot, the party has withdrawn its support for him.

       If he wins the seat he will sit in the House of Commons as an independent and the party will choose another candidate before the next general election, which must take place by 28 January 2025.

       George Galloway, the Workers Party of Britain candidate in Rochdale, who was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003, is among the candidates in the town.

       Simon Danczuk, an ex-Labour MP for Rochdale who is standing for the right-wing challenger party Reform UK, has accused Mr Galloway’s campaign of using the war in Gaza to whip “people into a frenzy”.

       Other candidates in the race are Iain Donaldson (Liberal Democrats), Paul Ellison (Conservatives), Michael Howarth (Independent), William Howarth (Independent), Ravin Rodent Subortna (Official Monster Raving Loony Party) and David Tully (Independent).

       With possibly 11 months to go before voters head to the polls for a national vote, the Rochdale by-election might not be the last.

       With Labour commanding a double-digit lead in the polls, 58 Conservative MPs have so far announced they will stand down before the election and some party insiders predict the number could rise to “well over 100”, according to The Sunday Times.

       Alok Sharma, the former business secretary and Cop26 president, Sajid Javid, the former health secretary, Dominic Raab, the ex-justice secretary and Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, are among the other big-name Tories who are stepping down at the next election.

       Mr Sharma and Mr Raab would have been defending majorities of fewer than 5,000 votes at the next national poll.