Sadness, anger, delight, disinterest. Andy Burnham’s victory in the Makerfield by-election, and the end of his time as Greater Manchester mayor, has sparked all manner of emotions among voters in his former patch.
Burnham held the mayoral job for nine years, winning three elections, and for many commentators he has become synonymous with Manchester’s resurgence.
He will now be hoping he can convince voters across the country that he is the right man to lead Britain instead of Sir Keir Starmer.
But not all of his former mayoral constituents will be sad to see the back of him.
“What has he was actually done for Manchester?” said Dudley, a 64-year-old decorator from Bury, in the hours after the seismic by-election result. “Not a lot. I don’t think so anyway. He’s made a lot of promises, but nothing’s ever happened.”
Dudley, a Reform voter, said he sees Burnham as a politician who is more “style over substance”, adding: “He’s just like a trinket, somebody dangling about.”
For Dudley, Labour represents a type of mainstream politics that has proved disappointing. He feels politicians have been promising change for all of his life but have never delivered it.
He is particularly aggrieved by the strains being experienced by the NHS, a problem he blames on immigration. “I’ve waited three years for a knee operation,” he said.
Dudley “can’t see” Burnham getting to No 10. “He’s not got the va va voom,” he said, “like Nigel Farage – he’s got it.”
Sarah thinks the former Manchester mayor may have been given ‘too much’ credit for the city’s regeneration in recent years (Photo: The i Paper)
Sarah, 42, from Mossley, believes Burnham – who earned the nickname “King of the North” for his fightback against Tory government restrictions during Covid – has had “a bit too much” credit for the success of Manchester in recent years.
“I think maybe he did help in some respects, but there’s people that you don’t see in the news that helped as well,” she said.
Asked how she feels about him stepping down as mayor, she added: “I’m not sure if ‘sad’ is the right word because he’s been around for a while. Maybe it’s time for someone else to take over and bring something new.”
She agreed that some people in the region might see his ambitions in a negative light: “Yes, because he wants to be prime minister doesn’t he? I always get that impression that a lot of politicians are very individualistic. It’s like a game isn’t it? It’s like, do you really care about these issues or do you just want to get into power?”
Currently swaying more towards the Green Party, Sarah also fears the new Makerfield MP would forget his roots in a bid to get to Downing Street. “I think the further up you go, the more easy it is to get sort of co-opted by other people in that sort of environment,” she added.
“I don’t think you can take away what he has done [in Manchester], but it just depends what he does in the future.
“I was thinking about, you know, when the [Manchester] Arena bombing happened [in 2017] and he was part of the concert that they had for it. I kind of see him bringing people together when that happened. And I can’t believe that was nearly 10 years ago.”
Darren Sykes, from Ramsbottom, sees Burnham as ‘a bit of a pioneer, someone that wants to push boundaries’ (Photo: The i Paper)
Darren Sykes, from Ramsbottom, was “very happy” with the Makerfield by-election result and believes Burnham would “do a far better job” as prime minister than Starmer. “I would completely go with that,” he said.
Describing him as “a bit of a pioneer, someone that wants to push boundaries” he said the former mayor “gets the area, gets what people want. And I think from my perspective, there’s a lot of people have really got him on side”, whereas with Starmer, “I don’t think he gets it. He says the right things and there’s this gesturing, but I don’t think he really gets us and gets what we want.
“With Andy Burnham, you do get that.”