The death of Sir Gerald Kaufman over the weekend, after nearly half a century representing Manchester in Westminster, marked the end of an era.

It drew to a close both a remarkable life and a remarkable career to which any obituary would struggle to do justice.

But it also blew years of poisonous in-fighting within his safe Labour seat wide open.

Factions that have been mobilising locally for a very, very long time are now gearing up for a selection battle a decade or more in the making – at the same time as Labour’s hierarchy nationally wages its own internal warfare in the wake of Copeland.

As one Greater Manchester MP said bluntly: “It is going to be horrible.”

While all local Labour parties have their factions – and occasionally rows that spill out of internal meetings – Gorton’s disagreements have been more frequent and more toxic than most.

When the party was suspended last year following an almighty row within its Levenshulme branch, I asked one seasoned Labour figure how unusual such a suspension actually was.

Under normal circumstances it would be unusual, he said, drily. But Gorton had been suspended so many times since the 1980s due to its factions misbehaving that really, in this case, not so much.

The most recent generation of in-fighting has ultimately been about one thing and one thing alone, however: who would succeed Sir Gerald.

“There’s been jostling about who comes after Gerald for eight to ten years,” said another experienced Manchester politician.

“It was anticipated he might stand down ahead of the last two general elections, if not before that, but he didn’t.

“Gerald also always hovered above it, whereas most other MPs would have been more proactive in bringing the CLP together and managing some of it.

“Normally you wouldn’t get that going on for 10 years.”

Another agreed: “About a year out from 2015 they all started competing to see who loved Gerald the most. But he was too clever for them all so he didn’t give any endorsement to anyone.”

True to form, Sir Gerald played by his own rules and confounded expectations by standing again in 2015, eventually racking up 47 years in parliament.

In the meantime the mobilising reached fever pitch.

Last year a mammoth falling-out between different factions and personalities reached its zenith at a Levenshulme branch meeting. As with all things to do with Gorton CLP it can be difficult to get to the actual facts – but suffice to say the police were called in amid claims of vote-rigging, abuse and intimidation.

A letter from regional office to the CLP at the time said allegations ‘related to the conduct of Labour party members both during and outside of Labour party meetings’, as well as to ‘the conduct of members of the CLP executive committee in administering internal ballots’.

It had received complaints from members fearing for their safety, it added.

The party was then suspended and although that suspension was lifted in November, Gorton CLP remains under a range of heavy restrictions.

To all intents and purposes it is in special measures, with regional office overseeing selections and the convening of key meetings – and all new party members required to show two forms of ID.

As one rank-and-file member put it, the local party is ‘allowed to go out leafleting’ but not a lot else.

Quite how the selection process will work, therefore, remains rather unclear, although it is understood local members will be allowed to vote on the eventual shortlist. But one outcome, believe many in Manchester, is inevitable.

“It will end up being like a micro-replica of the turmoil within the Labour party as a whole,” said one councillor.

“It will be a fight between a Corbyn and a non-Corbyn candidate.”

First out of the traps appeared to be a Labour activist called Sam Wheeler, whose potential candidacy was being discussed within hours of Sir Gerald’s death.

On Monday the Huffington Post reported his name was already being bandied about by senior Corbyn figures as their chosen one, describing him as a ‘rising star’.

Labour politicians in Manchester reacted with bafflement. Multiple senior sources said they had ‘never heard of him’ and cast doubt on his record within the local party.

That is perhaps rather unfair. Wheeler is from Longsight, within the Gorton constituency, and he introduced Corbyn at his leadership launch last year. He has in fact been out and about campaigning for the party – having recently moved back to Manchester from London – with an eye to run for the city council.

Nevertheless a friend said the suggestion he would be running for parliament came as a ‘complete shock’.

“The first he knew about any of this was when someone showed him the story in the Huffington Post,” they said.

“He’s known Gerald since 2005 and has been his constituent all his life – he wouldn’t do anything so crass as to start trying to get votes the day after he died. He’s better than that.”

Two theories are currently doing the rounds about Wheeler: either that Labour’s leadership genuinely do want him to run, leapfrogging the existing contenders, or that anti-Corbynites deliberately circulated his name at unseemly speed to discredit the left of the party.

Whichever is true, all that comes on top of the cast of thousands already lining up to take a shot at the seat.

Afzal Khan, north west MEP and the first Asian mayor of Manchester a decade ago, is key among them. Talk is rife – among his enemies – of a flurry of Gorton-based Brexit-themed meetings and events of late, although his allies point out he has been campaigning in other bits of Manchester too.

Nevertheless his clear ambitions in Gorton have been talked of for years in Labour circles – and the job of MEP will not be a job much longer.

Manchester executive councillor Luthfur Rahman, chair of Gorton CLP, is also strongly expected to stand, as is Julie Reid, a pro-Corbyn Labour councillor in Gorton who ran for selection in Ashton-Under-Lyne a couple of years ago.

Her fellow Manchester councillors Rabnawaz Akbar and Mike Amesbury, the latter currently working on Andy Burnham’s mayoral campaign, are both thought to be interested too.

All stopped short of confirming their candidacy so soon.

In a statement Afzal Khan said: “Sir Gerald Kaufman was a true champion for the people of Manchester and his constituents. Over the 20 years we worked together I was always grateful for his support, advice and above all friendship. He will be sorely missed and will be a hard act for anyone to follow.

“Out of respect to Sir Gerald’s memory and his family I will not be commenting on the selection process until the Labour party announces a timetable.”

Luthfur Rahman stressed the selection process has not yet started, adding: “However as former chair, secretary, treasurer, fundraising officer and current councillor in Gorton constituency I am considering my options.”

Rusholme councillor Rabnawaz Akbar, another member of Gorton CLP, said he was still mourning the loss of the area’s MP and a ‘wonderful personal friend’.

“I have been approached by members and friends of the Labour movement as well as Gorton residents to put my name forward for the ensuing by-election,” he said.

“I am still in the process of discussing with my family before I make a decision. I have not yet had the opportunity to talk to my son, who lives and works in London.”

Mike Amesbury said ‘a number of people’ had approached him and asked him to stand, adding: “It’s my home constituency and it’s where my family live. I’ve had national experience as well as city experience of getting things done with power. I’m strongly considering it.”

Julie Reid, who represents Gorton South on Manchester council, said she was still 'in shock' at Sir Gerald's passing, adding that Labour members are currently organising a public memorial for him at Gorton Monastery.

"I was at his funeral in Leeds yesterday so that's still quite raw really," she said.

"I've been upset at the number of people saying nasty things in lots of ways and not considering the feelings of people who have known him a very long time. Also I'm concerned the number of people who have been not thinking things through before putting things in the press, not thinking about the Gorton family."

But she said there was a need to 'carry on' in the wake of his death, adding: "What we don't want to see is a scrabble among people who previously would have worked together. I feel I can bring people together and get everybody working together. That's what Gerald did.

"What we don't want is someone coming in from outside who doesn't care about Gorton and sees it as another seat."

Beyond those who are fully expected to stand, there are the maybes.

Amina Lone, a Gorton member, Manchester councillor and Labour candidate in Morecambe at the last general election, refused to comment so soon after Sir Gerald’s death, but multiple sources said she was being encouraged to stand and was considering it.

In the last 24 hours another name has surfaced, too: Tony Lloyd, the current police commissioner and one-time MP for Manchester Central.

Seen as a safe pair of hands who could bridge the seat’s numerous factions, he is understood to have been approached by several party figures. Given that his term as PCC ends in May ahead of the new mayor’s election, he would have the added benefit of being immediately available.

Other names – Levenshulme councillor Nasrin Ali, Oldham trade unionist Mohammed Azam – have been mentioned too.

The first fight will be to get on the shortlist in the first place, of course. And much depends on who ends up sitting on the NEC sub-committee that decides – and whether it is pro-Corbyn in its leanings. A meeting to decide on that is expected on Thursday.

Speculation swirls locally about whether that panel will go for an all-women shortlist. The theory, put forward by more than one MP and councillor, is that such a move would help by-pass the bitter, male-dominated factions that have held sway for so long.

Even so, that would be unlikely to eliminate the entrenched in-fighting after so many years. And if Corbyn's office controls the selection panel and really does want Sam Wheeler in place, an AWS goes out of the window anyway.

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What remains unclear is who within the wide field deputy party leader Tom Watson – legendary Labour fixer – will be backing. He is said to be ‘staying out’ of the whole thing, a claim few are likely to believe. Rumours abound that he will quietly support Afzal Khan.

The consensus appears to currently be that the by-election itself will take place on the same day as the mayoral election on May 4.

However tumultuous the selection process in the meantime, this is still one of the party’s safest seats, returning a majority of nearly 25,000 at the last general election.

That hasn’t stopped Labour figures locally getting the jitters.

In both 2005 and 2010 the Liberal Democrats took a third of the vote share, running Labour far closer pre-coalition than afterwards. With Labour now in disarray over Brexit and the Lib Dems performing well in by-elections, while Her Majesty’s Opposition – to put it bluntly – are not, more than one MP is worried.

“Yes, Gerald had a huge majority in 2015 – but in 2010 it was not so big and the Lib Dems have traditionally done much better up until their vote collapsed at the last election,” said one, warning the wrong candidate could put it ‘at risk’.

Another MP, who expects the selection process to be ‘horrible’, agreed: “There’s a bit of a concern about the Liberal Democrats in all of this.

“I’d be amazed, by the way. But on a low turnout – you don’t know.”