Beddgelert, a tiny village in North Wales, takes its name from a dog named Gelert.

Legend has it that his owner, the 13th century prince Llywelyn the Great, returned home one day after leaving his baby in the safe care of the hound. Gelert greeted his owner, tail wagging, with a blood-smeared muzzle.

Llywelyn saw the baby’s cot was overturned. There was no sign of the child, and he believed the dog had attacked the baby. So, Llywelyn drew his sword and slayed Gelert.

Yet as the dog gave his dying yelp, Llywelyn heard the cries of his baby unharmed beneath the cradle. Beside him, a mighty wolf lay dead.

The moral of this story is that there is no loyalty greater than that of a dog – especially, I would say, that of labradors. I have no time for anyone who treats a dog unkindly. Which brings me straight on to Makerfield…

As you will know by now, it’s a two-horse race between Reform’s Rob Kenyon and Labour’s Andy Burnham, polling on 40 and 45 per cent respectively – and truly, it is the most consequential by-election of my lifetime.

The result will be seismic, whoever wins. And it will change politics in the country as we know it.

If Reform win, it is the end of days for the Labour Party. If Reform can win in Makerfield (Labour since the days of Michael Foot), they can win anywhere.

If Andy Burnham wins, it’s the end for Starmer. The Labour Party will make a hard turn to the Left, and the country will sink even deeper into joblessness and economic decline.

Political pundits are predicting that Andy Burnham will win, due to the presence of Restore – Rupert Lowe’s hard-Right party – which is polling on around 8 per cent, splitting the Right-wing vote. Polling expert John Curtice has said: ‘It’s close and if Restore voters back the Reform candidate on the day, then Burnham would lose’.

Rupert Lowe has said ‘he doesn’t care’ if that’s the case and Burnham wins.

We should all care. I simply cannot get my head around the fact that some people in Makerfield are thinking of voting for Lowe’s party despite knowing that a vote for Restore is a vote for Burnham.

I know they are being told that Restore has a fighting chance by activists who, The Mail on Sunday has revealed, stood alongside neo-Nazis at a recent ‘white supremacy’ summit in Portugal.

But Restore’s staffers are spreading disinformation both online and in person; citing dodgy surveys and claiming that their party is polling higher than is officially reported.

I know that nothing I say will be enough to change the minds of Restore’s most rabid loyalists.

But I will pose this question: Are you really going to cast your vote for a party led by a man who asked a member of his staff to shoot his ailing 17-year-old faithful labrador with a rifle?

That’s exactly what Rupert Lowe did to his dog, Cromwell.

Politics aside, as a dog-lover, I could never vote for a party led by someone like that. But of course, Rupert always has an excuse.

This time, his pathetic defence was that this was a ‘humane act’ and that it would have been too distressing to take Cromwell to the vet.

I owned a labrador myself, who we also had to put down at the age of 17. As anyone who has lost a dog knows, that excuse is utter nonsense.

We got Molly when the girls were young and for all those years, she was a bundle of pure joy.

Though Molly died 12 years ago, we still talk about her on a regular basis. Like the time we arrived at the five-star Gleneagles Hotel for one October half term – and she charged through the hotel, straight into a private room and leapt up onto a table and landed in the middle of a beautifully decorated cake.

Or how she came in from the garden one Sunday evening with a whole freshly cooked chicken in her mouth. ‘But… we had lamb for lunch!’ exclaimed the girls as we scuttled Molly indoors before any of the neighbours realised their roast dinner was ruined.

Like with so many labradors, arthritis in Molly’s hips eventually kicked in. Walking became difficult. Lipomas (lumps of fatty tissue) grew all over her body. She put on weight.

When Molly’s legs finally gave in – as happened to Lowe’s dog Cromwell – we took a decision to put her out of her misery.

We called the vet to the house to do the awful deed. She sat on my daughter’s lap, and we distracted her by feeding her favourite salmon.

So absorbed was she by the salmon and the kisses on her head, the tickles on her tummy, she didn’t even notice what was happening. She simply closed her eyes and slipped away. Does Rupert Lowe really believe that a stranger, standing in front of Cromwell with a shotgun, was a less stressful and a kinder way to end his life?

For us, it was heartbreaking – even the vet cried. But it was the least we could do for Molly, to be there at the end to repay her for all the love she had shown to us over the years. To hold her and reassure her. Cromwell never got that.

No one who treats an animal in such a callous way deserves a role in public life. For that reason alone, this is my last appeal to anyone who is considering voting Restore: Please, think again.

U-16s social media ban is just Starmer’s legacy bid

You will find no greater supporter of a ban on social media for under-16s than me. But I felt almost nauseous as I watched Keir Starmer make his policy announcement yesterday morning.

It was very clear that the news of the ban was not about protecting children. Or about the Prime Minister taking on the tech.

No, it was Starmer’s last-ditch attempt to leave a legacy – as a leadership challenge from Andy Burnham seems ever more likely.

Remember, this is the same Starmer who said only six months ago that he was against an outright ban.

Watching Starmer’s statement in person were grieving parents and campaigners whose children died as a result of social media use.

They had been hauled into No 10 at an ungodly hour of the morning to listen to the PM speak.

I got to know some of those parents in my previous roles in government and in my capacity as chair of the National Suicide Prevention Committee for two years.

They have been resisted and ignored by this Labour government – until it became convenient for Starmer to listen.  

Shame on him.

Help in the High Street 

According to various reports, the British High Street is undergoing a revival, with 13 new shops a week opening.

I am mid-way through renovating my house and, lately, have spent more time shopping online than I would like to. And it has become a depressingly expensive experience.

Returns have become costly, the process cumbersome – if not almost impossible – and I’m getting the impression that retailers are doing all they can to stop me sending back their wares.

All I can say is, thank God Screwfix has actual shops.

In the meantime, I’m off to my local hospice shop to donate the 32 brass knobs I over-ordered for the kitchen and the lampshade I didn’t like when I received it – but missed the return date.