'We're like Oliver Twist begging for crumbs': Inside the town being 'swallowed up' by its neighbour

“It’s almost like Oliver Twist begging for crumbs from the big table. We feel like we are treated like a poor relation, we really do.”

Peter Shore, a 69-year-old project manager, is explaining why he has co-founded the new Middleton Independents Party to contest the next Rochdale council elections in May.

He is sat in a room above a coffee shop in Middleton town centre where the fledgling group has just held a meeting to discuss everything from policies to publicity. Peter says he is ‘fed-up’ of his home town playing second fiddle to Rochdale - the borough’s largest town - and wants to do something to redress the balance.

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He is not the only one.

The electoral newcomer is planning to field three candidates in all five of the town’s wards - including Hopwood Hall - when voters next go to the polls.

While Labour currently dominates Rochdale Council with 45 of its 60 seats - some 75pc - the stakes are higher than they have been in some time. Boundary changes mean this is an ‘all out’ election where every seat is up for grabs rather than the usual third, potentially creating the conditions for a political earthquake.

And if Labour is not worried by the emergence of a hastily assembled group of independents, perhaps it should be given the success of similar groups elsewhere in Greater Manchester.

The rise of Farnworth and Kearsley First ultimately played a huge part in toppling Labour from power in Bolton, inspiring the likes of Horwich and Blackrod First along the way.

Independents have also had a big impact in Oldham - albeit far more controversially - as well as Bury, where Radcliffe First have three