{"id":586907,"date":"2026-05-16T07:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/586907\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T07:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:16:08","slug":"burnham-allowed-to-run-for-selection-in-makerfield-by-election-as-pressure-on-starmer-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/586907\/","title":{"rendered":"Burnham allowed to run for selection in Makerfield by-election as pressure on Starmer continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Burnham cleared to run for selection in Makerfield by-electionpublished at 06:41 BST<\/p>\n

06:41 BST<\/p>\n

\"GreaterImage source, Reuters<\/p>\n

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is one step closer to returning to Westminster, having been cleared by Labour’s ruling body to run for selection in the Makerfield by-election. <\/p>\n

Josh Simons announced he would resign as MP for Makerfield, paving the way for a potential return for Burnham. The mayor is widely expected to try and challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer as Labour Party leader.<\/p>\n

The BBC understands the by-election is likely to take place on 18 June.<\/p>\n

Talk of a leadership contest has dominated Westminster following bruising election results for the Labour Party last week. <\/p>\n

Its deputy leader Lucy Powell said on Friday that Burnham was needed as a “key player” in Westminster. <\/p>\n

Burnham’s leadership ambitions are no secret – but there are several hurdles he needs to overcome if he wants to ultimately challenge the PM. <\/p>\n

First, he needs to be selected as the local party’s candidate. Then he faces the challenge of winning the by-election.<\/p>\n

If he wins, Burnham will then need to secure the backing of 81 Labour MPs if he wants to launch a leadership challenge against Starmer. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Wes Streeting – who resigned as health secretary on Wednesday saying he had “lost confidence” in the PM – has enough support to trigger a race, allies say.<\/p>\n

It’s also widely believed that former deputy PM Angela Rayner may also throw her hat in the ring, having now resolved her tax affairs with HMRC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We’ll bring you key updates throughout the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Burnham cleared to run for selection in Makerfield by-electionpublished at 06:41 BST 06:41 BST Image source, Reuters Greater…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-586907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}