Andy Burnham Cruises To Victory In Crucial Makerfield By-Election
3 min read
Andy Burnham has comfortably won the Makerfield by-election, taking him a step closer to replacing Keir Starmer as prime minister.
Opinion polls published in the run-up to polling day had indicated a closer contest between Burnham and his closest rival, Reform UK's Robert Kenyon.
However, Burnham won nearly 55 per cent of the vote in Makerfield, with Kenyon far behind on 34.5 per cent.
Restore Britain's Rebecca Shepherd came third on nearly seven per cent.
Burnham, who must now resign as mayor of Greater Manchester to take up his role as MP, said his landslide victory was a "loud cry for change", adding: "Tonight could, just could, be the turning point."
The by-election in the northwest of England has widely been described as one of the most consequential in British political history.
Burnham, a former health secretary, is now expected to launch a bid to replace Starmer in No 10, supported by large numbers of Labour MPs.
The manner of his victory in Makerfield will be used by his supporters as clear evidence that he is Labour's best chance of taking on Nigel Farage's Reform and staying in power at the next election.
The Prime Minister has insisted that he will fight any leadership challenge and warned his party that triggering a contest would mean chaos for the country.
Former health secretary Wes Streeting has said that he would enter a Labour leadership contest, as could Al Cairns, the lesser-known Labour MP who resigned as a defence minister last week over defence spending.
The by-election in Makerfield was triggered when the seat's former MP, Josh Simons, resigned to clear the way for Burnham to return to the House of Commons and allow the Manchester mayor to challenge Starmer for the leadership.
Speaking in Makerfield after his victory was announced in the early hours of Friday morning, Burnham said: "I do say to my own party - this is a final chance to change.
"This is what people said directly to me on the hundreds of doorsteps that I stood on.
We must hear it. We must act upon it, and we must get it right.
"There will be no second chance, but it is a chance now, from this result tonight, to build a new politics based on unity and hope, turning away from the path that takes us to a divided, politics of the kind we’ve seen in the United States.
"We must now take this path and put this country back on the right path, and bring people back together and get things working properly again."
Pollster Luke Tryl, UK Director of More in Common, described Burnham's victory as "pretty much nothing short of an electoral miracle" for Labour given that Reform made huge gains in this part of the country at last month's local elections.
He told Times Radio: "It's a really good result for Labour and a really disappointing result for Reform UK."
Breakdown of the results in Makerfield:
Andy Burnham (Labour) - 24,937 (54.82 per cent)
Rob Kenyon (Reform) - 15,696 (34.51 per cent)
Rebecca Shepherd (Restore Britain) - 3,111 (6.84 per cent)
Michael Winstanley (Conservative) - 997 (2.19% per cent)
Sarah Wakefield (Green) - 308 (0.68 per cent)
Jake Austin (Liberal Democrat) - 163 (0.36 per cent)
