Jill Lawless
London: Labour’s Andy Burnham, the current Mayor of Greater Manchester, has won a special election for a seat in the UK parliament that puts him in a position to challenge embattled British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Burnham decisively won the seat of Makerfield in north-west England over Rob Kenyon of the anti-immigration party Reform UK.
The victory announced early on Friday (London time) cements the status of Burnham as the leading contender to replace Starmer as leader of the Labour Party and the country. Burnham won almost 55 per cent of the 45,510 votes counted, over 9000 more than Kenyon.
Burnham’s victory speech left no doubt that he wants to lead the country, and not just be one of the more than 400 Labour lawmakers in the 650-seat House of Commons.
“Everyone knows that politics isn’t working,” he said. “Everyone can feel that the country isn’t where it should be. Tonight could, just could, be the turning point.”
He said Labour had “a final chance to change” and win back voters’ trust.
“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 divisive, dark politics of the kind we see in the United States,” he said.
Starmer’s popularity has cratered since he led the centre-left Labour Party to a landslide election victory in July 2024.
He has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living, and been hamstrung by repeated missteps, including his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as the UK ambassador to the United States.
A dismal performance in May’s local elections spurred scores of Labour lawmakers to demand Starmer’s resignation. He has refused to budge, but senior colleagues are trying to force a change.
Wes Streeting resigned as health secretary in May, saying that “where we need vision, we have a vacuum”.
Then Josh Simons, the Labour lawmaker for Makerfield, stepped down to trigger a special election and give Burnham the chance to return to parliament.
Britain’s parliamentary system allows governing parties to change leaders midterm, with the winner becoming prime minister without the need for a national election. Under Labour rules, a lawmaker can challenge the leader if they have backing from a fifth of the party’s House of Commons lawmakers – a number that stands at 81.
Streeting said on Tuesday that he hoped Starmer would agree to step down, but that if he didn’t, “there will need to be a contest, and I would be prepared to do that”.
Streeting is an assured communicator with a base of support among parliamentary colleagues, but Burnham is considered the more likely successor.
The 56-year-old politician nicknamed the “King of the North” has led Manchester since 2017, overseeing rapid regeneration for the city where the Industrial Revolution was forged.
Burnham is pledging to repeat his signature brand of “Manchesterism” on a national scale.
In an election-day video, Burnham said the election on the edge of Greater Manchester, about 320 kilometres north-west of London, gave “the people of Makerfield the opportunity to write a new script”.
Starmer, meanwhile, has tried to keep calm and carry on, insisting that he has no intention of leaving his post.
“I will fight if there’s a challenge,” he said at the G7 summit in France this week.
“We won a significant general election result in 2024, with a mandate to bring about change. I’m not going to walk away from that.”
Starmer suggested that he could offer Burnham a cabinet post if he wins, telling Sky News on Wednesday that “I want him to have a big role in government”. Allies of Burnham indicated that he wasn’t interested.
Rob Ford, a professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said, “the pressure on Starmer will be very hard to resist” now that Burnham is back in parliament.
The victorious Burnham will head to London to be sworn in as a lawmaker in the House of Commons as soon as Monday. He’s also likely to seek a meeting with Starmer to argue that the prime minister should exit gracefully and set a timetable for his departure.
Starmer has insisted he will not resign, but that could change if several members of the cabinet tell him the game is up and quit, or threaten to quit, in protest.
There could be a leadership contest, or a coronation, depending on whether other potential candidates think Burnham has an unassailable lead.
Ford said defeating Reform UK in Makerfield strengthened Burnham’s claim to be Labour’s biggest asset. “The narrative he can bring is, ‘No one else could have won that seat. I won that. I bring something unique. I bring an ability to renew our appeal’,” Ford said.
