![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_200526reform16.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAndy Burnham is bidding to become the next Makerfield MP<\/p>\n
20:24, 23 May 2026Updated 20:24, 23 May 2026<\/p>\n
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Nigel Farage MP with Robert Kenyon, Reform UK’s candidate(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n
The first poll into the Makerfield by-election has been published tonight. Andy Burnham<\/a> is hoping to win the seat in a dramatic contest that looks set to go to the wire.<\/p>\n Mr Burnham, the Greater Manchester Mayor, launched his campaign on Friday<\/a>. \u201cPolitics in this country, British politics, is tired,\u201d he told supporters. \u201cIt needs a new script and over the next four weeks the people of Makerfield are going to write that script for change.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI know my own party needs to change. We need to be better than we have been. A vote for me in this by-election is a vote to change Labour.\u201d<\/p>\n The Labour candidate faces a fight to win the seat, however, which became available after standing Labour MP Josh Simons resigned earlier this month.<\/p>\n Click here for our dedicated Makerfield by-election newsletter<\/a> with the latest updates and analysis<\/p>\n Reform swept the board at the recent Wigan<\/a> local elections, winning 24 of the 25 seats available. And the party’s candidate in the by-election, Robert Kenyon, said he is \u201cready to take on the King of the North\u201d in a reference to Mr Burnham\u2019s moniker.<\/p>\n Mr Kenyon was joined on the campaign trail earlier this week by his party leader, Nigel Farage, and posted an image of him on Saturday with Zia Yusuf.<\/p>\n Burnham is the Labour candidate for the upcoming Makerfield by-election(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n Tonight (May 23), the Sunday Times<\/a> published a poll showing a knife-edge race between Labour<\/a> and Reform. The poll, by Survation for Election Data, is based off 369 respondents likely to vote in the election, the outlet reports.<\/p>\n It says the polls currently show:<\/p>\n Andy Burnham (Labour) – 43%Robert Kenyon (Reform) – 40%Rebecca Shepherd (Restore Britain) – 7%Jake Austin (Lib Dems) – 4%Green Party – 3%Michael Winstanley (Conservative) – 2%Other – 1% Makerfield by-election poll<\/p>\n The Greens on Thursday named Chris Kennedy as their candidate, before he withdrew from the race just nine hours after his selection.<\/p>\n The party said Mr Kennedy had withdrawn for \u201cpersonal and family reasons\u201d, but it later emerged that he had shared posts on social media claiming an attack on Jewish ambulances in north London had been a \u201cfalse flag\u201d operation.<\/p>\n A Green spokesperson said Mr Kennedy had deleted and apologised for the posts, but added the party stood by its previous statement about the reasons for his withdrawal.<\/p>\n Join our new Makerfield by-election WhatsApp community by clicking this link<\/a> for the latest news. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham is bidding to become the next Makerfield MP 20:24, 23 May 2026Updated 20:24, 23 May 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[19306,141736,59,57,58,202473,50,229,56,54,55,2448],"class_list":["post-600906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-andy-burnham","tag-ashton-in-makerfield","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-makerfield-by-election-2026","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wigan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600906","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=600906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_Andy-Burnham-Launches-His-Campaign-As-Labours-Candidate-For-The-Makerfield-By-election.jpg\")
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