Annabel Tiffin says she doesn't want the debate to be all about why Burnham is standing and asks the panel to move on to local issues.

Michael Winstanley added to the debate: "Andy you said you couldn't achieve what you wanted to do at Westminster. That's why you came to become mayor of Manchester.

"We're now going back again."

Robert Kenyon said: "The last MP stepped down and they parachuted Josh Simons in from Cambridge or Bury, I think... it was between the two places.

"It was a time when Andy was running for Greater Manchester mayor. Why didn't you choose Makerfield then, Andy? I think you've been looking at standing in Gorton and Denton, and someone said some other seats like Warrington and Bootle. Are we bottom of your list?"

In response, Burnham said "clearly not" and points out that he lives on the edge of the constituency and added he has looked after the interests of Wigan as part of his mayoral brief.

Andy Burnham said: "Yesterday was 25 years since I was first elected in the Leigh constituency and the current Makerfield constituency includes a lot of my Leigh constituency back then.

"So it's a strange stepping stone that takes you back to where you began but it's because I've always been rooted in this place and I've always represented it.

"My whole career has been about standing up for people in this part of the world. The thing I did over Hillsborough and other things. I've always been rooted here and determined to get the best I can for this area and I think what's happening through the by-election is this constituency often been put at the bottom of the list by Westminster, finally is getting the attention it deserves and it will have, I hope, real power and real influence to get the investment in infrastructure that it hasn't had, flooding infrastructure, which has come up so often in this by-election [and] road infrastructure."

Annabel Tiffin asks Andy Burnham about the idea he is "using Makerfield as a stepping stone"

Jake Austin said: "It's a two-pronged approach between making sure that the police have the resources that they need, but also making sure that we're providing opportunities for young people, so they do not feel like they have to turn to anti-social behaviour just to be able to go outside.

"I don't agree with everything that Michael [Winstanley] said, but I do think he touched on the heart of the issue and that is community policing in particular.

"When was the last time our residents knew who the local neighbourhood police officer was? Could imagine it is a very, very long time ago."

Andy Burnham said: "I've put more police on the streets."

"That's my record as mayor of Greater Manchester. When I came in, police numbers were being cut."

He said Greater Manchester Police "still wasn't where they should have been until I changed the chief constable".

He described GMP chief constable Sir Stephen Watson as an "outstanding police leader".

"He committed to doubling the number of arrests. He's done that, we have seen neighbourhood crime fall across Greater Manchester, including in the Wigan borough.

"He's taken a really firm approach, and I think that's what people want to see and I back him in doing that, and particularly on this Ashton issue, I want to bring to Ashton what we have pioneered elsewhere in Greater Manchester called Operation Vulcan, which is where you take a deep look at all the underlying reasons in a locality where there is high levels of crime."

Burnham said he wanted to make a "specific commitment" to an Ashton Youth Zone "because I do believe, better youth provision is also part of the answer".

Robert Kenyon said: "There's not really anywhere for kids to go.

"Winstanley has nothing. It's one of the only wards in the constituency that has got absolutely nothing for kids or youth club.

"They've got 15 a-side pitch where Winstanley Warriors play, but you can't get on it. So what are they supposed to do?"

He adds that "in layman's terms, you need bobbies on the beat".

Sarah Wakefield says there is a need to provide "more youth clubs, more opportunities for sports, more opportunities for creativity" for young people.

"[There should be] reinvestment in youth workers, reinvestment and proper sports facilities [and] things for young people to do.

"At the end of the day, our young people are suffering from a massive mental health crisis.

"At the moment, our schools have been turned into exam factories [and] they're really suffering from the effects of social media.

"I think we could all do a far better job by our young people, by asking them what they need and asking them what kind of things would help them live a much better life as part of our community."

Annabel Tiffin asks Michael Winstanley what the Tories would do about gangs of youths causing trouble in Ashton-in-Makerfield.

He said: "I've seen this firsthand as well, and it is frightening for people in Ashton, and that's driving people away from our high streets as well.

"One of my campaign pledges is that we do need to crack down on crime and anti-social behaviour, and the only way we can do that is actually by having proper effective policing on the streets to have that presence.

"And we also need effective deterrence as well, so that when these people are caught that they're actually dealt with severely, and that actually then provides a deterrent for future behaviour as well.

"We do really need to take control of those streets again with a strong police presence and to really clamp down on this."

Annabel Tiffin asks the panel about anti-social behaviour and what should be done to tackle it.

Sarah Wakefield said: "What we've heard from the majority of the other parties isn't a politics of compassion and kindness... it's actually a politics of cruelty, particularly when it comes to asylum seekers and what we should really be thinking about is we are a country that is built on immigrants.

"You go back far enough in any of our family histories, and you will have a story about someone in your family coming to this country to make a better life and when it comes to how we we work with asylum seekers that are coming here, we believe we should be giving them dignity, a right to work so that they can contribute while their asylum claims are being processed, and not create this division between them and us.

"Ultimately, we're all people and many of the people coming to this country are fleeing some of the most unimaginable horrors that are taking place around the world."

Andy Burnham said immigration does come up on many doorsteps and is one of the top issues that people want to discuss.

"It feels like the country isn't functioning properly, running things properly on the small boats issue and people want it to be dealt with.

"And we do need to go further to deal with those crossings.

"The government has cut net migration by 80%... it's happened on this government's watch. Small boat crossings are down by 40% year-on-year."

Michael Winstanley said he would like to put the record straight on the figures a couple of weeks ago "where we saw that legal migration figures coming down were due to the policies that were brought in under the tail end of the last Conservative government, where we put a restriction on visas".

"These things do take a time to filter through. So that's why we've seen that come down.

"On the doorstep, people are concerned about legal and illegal migration as well and that's why we need a really clear plan of to be able to deal with this.

"First of all, illegal immigration, we've got to come out of the ECHR [European Convention on Human Rights]. There's no other way that we can deal with this properly unless we come out of that.

"Kemi Badenoch has said that, and the Conservative Party acknowledged that, legal migration was far too high for far too long and we do need to get a grip of it because it does impact on housing and it does impact on services as well.

"And that's not to say people want to get rid of everybody. That's complete and utter nonsense. We want to make sure that the people who need to be are here as well, and are contributing society and paying those taxes, which helps to grow the economy. But we need to do that in a responsible way."

Jake Austin said: "What we're hearing is that people have genuine concerns about immigration, but the problems that they have is not being able to afford a house, not being able to afford their energy bills, they are not linked to the problem of immigration entirely.

"I believe we are constantly told by the extreme parties, particularly on the right, that immigration is the cause for most of our problems.

"I don't agree, and the Liberal Democrats don't agree."

Reform's Robert Kenyon said: "The vast majority of doors I've knocked on... it's very, very high up on the agenda, if not the top issue.

"Wigan is is probably one of the highest concentrations of HMOs [houses of multiple occupancy] in the country. In the last few years it's been used a bit of a dumping ground.

"Since Labour took charge in 2024, we've had 72,000 people come in illegally. That's almost the same size as the Makerfield constituency.

"If you're going to come in and work and help us, by all means come here and you're more than welcome, but if you're going to come here illegally, then you need to be deported ultimately, because it's costing the taxpayer billions."

Annabel Tiffin asks candidates about immigration and whether it's an issue that's coming up on the doorstep.

Reform UK's Robert Kenyon said: "I'm all about being local, but nationally the policies are scrap VAT on energy bills, scrap Net Zero [and increase] drilling in the North Sea.

"I've been knocking on doors all over Makerfield for a while, and there's some people who aren't provided a bus service, who live at the back end of an estate where buses don't go."

He also said he agrees with scrapping the two-child benefit.

"It's rewarding people just having loads of kids and at end of the day, you've got to provide for your for your family.

"What we'll do is reward hard work by not taxing overtime. So if you do want a bit of extra cash, which everyone does, then you know, if you want to do a bit of overtime."

Green Sarah Wakefield said: "We've got a really clear plan to empower our public... local authorities to go street by street to make sure that we have the proper insulation so people aren't paying too much on that energy bills.

"We would also go far further than anyone else on this panel, not just in terms of public control that Andy talks about for energy companies, but proper public ownership, so that the hard-earned money that we are putting into our energy bills doesn't go into millions of pounds of bonuses.

"It goes right back into the system to building the energy grid that we need to transition to a clean and fair future."

Liberal Democrat Jake Austin said: "We believe that energy companies who have a monopoly in this industry have profited too much off the backs of the conflicts... [and] a raised the oil and gas prices.

"We believe that money needs to go back into the pockets of the people who are paying those energy bills, because energy is not a luxury."