EXCLUSIVE: Labour insiders have spoken to the Manchester Evening News ahead of Thursday's crucial Makerfield by-election and have revealed the tense negotiations that are likely to follow. Rob Williams reports.

"Really, it comes down to, we do give a s*** and we care about our people"

Sources inside the authority claim suspended staff members feel they are being 'scapegoated' for years of ‘rampant governance failures’

For Pub of the Week, we head to the Station Hotel in Altrincham - just don't mention the creepy doll

"It's so chilling to see places you've been literally thousands of times like this"

The palm trees are fake, but the shopping mall is very real

It all started with a £5 Italia 90 England shirt...

'We never imagined we'd reach this scale when we were printing t-shirts from our dad’s shed'

Bury dad Nathan Pickering joined the Army at 16 then, in his early 30s, was diagnosed with complex PTSD and early-onset dementia

"They ruined my party"

'I do think that as long as a story feels very truthful and universal, then it doesn’t really matter where it’s set'

Former GMP detective James Ellson led investigations into drive-by gang shootings, sexual assaults and fatal hit-and-runs, until one nigth he decided he couldn't do it anymore

BBC Question Time’s Makerfield special brought together Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham for a live exchange that exposed sharp contrasts in style, experience and political direction. Rob Williams reports.

Labour placards and Reform banners stand side by side on one road in Ashton-in-Makerfield. We knocked on the doors of neighbours backing different parties to find out how Britain's political divisions are playing out. Iram Ramzan reports.

“We thought we’d just be a small meetup group that meets monthly to discuss start-ups and stuff."

PLUS: ‘Are you getting desperate lad?’

It's one of the last of it's kind in the UK

"The Fall were a uniquely northern band with a uniquely northern frontman"

It made headlines around the world; spawned protests; provoked comment from political leaders; and saw British policing come under fire. Then the courtroom drama began. Andrew Bardsley and John Scheerhout report.

It was a VERY special return from Take That last night, bringing The Circus back to life for the first time in 17 years. Our reporter was there in 2009 and 2026 and delivers her verdict on the key moments and big changes.

"Then everything stopped, it was like a lightbulb being turned off"

Thomas Hallisey preyed on the elderly and vulnerable

'They ignored warnings, and at no point have they expressed responsibility or culpability for what happened'

Built in 1902, for years No.1 Mellor Road was known as a bakery, but for the last two years Jonny Greene and Nick Porter have been transforming it into something very different

"We're shouting numbers out at each other to the amusement of bystanders and we're still getting the answer wrong"

"My favourite saying is we help poor millionaires"

Clifton 'Yankee' Jeter is one of the UK's most dangerous prisoners

The professional dancer spoke exclusively to the Manchester Evening News about returning to the BBC One show

From immigration and grooming gangs to devolution and “aspirational socialism”, in an interview with the MEN, Andy Burnham sets out the political philosophy underpinning his possible return to Westminster. Beth Abbit reports.

Georgia Sweeney, 26, says some of the young people she works with say it's, 'not worth their while to get a job'