Roughly 70,000 voters in a mostly suburban part of northwest England will today determine the fate of the UK government.

Andy Burnham, the Manchester mayor, is aiming to win a special election by appealing for grand national renewal — and promising to address frustrations over local traffic congestion.

Burnham leads local polls and, if he succeeds, he will seek to oust Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has suffered seemingly unrelenting controversies. Whoever emerges victorious from the battle within the Labour party will face enormous challenges: Economic growth is pallid, debt is mounting, and the far right is leading national polls. “Rage [is] in the air and no by-election is going to change that,” the deputy editor of the New Statesman wrote.