Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has cruised to victory in a high-stakes by-election in northern England, paving the way for him to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the leadership of the Labour Party and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
Burnham handily defeated his closest challenger, Robert Kenyon, the candidate for the anti-immigration Reform UK, in the seat of Makerfield, vote results showed early on Friday, securing the House of Commons seat he needs to mount a bid for the prime ministership.<\/p>\n
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Burnham won 24,927 votes, beating Kenyon by more than 9,000 votes.<\/p>\n
Rebecca Shepherd of Restore Britain was a distant third, trailed by Michael Winstanley of the Conservative Party, Sarah Wakefield of the Green Party, and the Liberal Democrats\u2019 Jake Austin.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone knows that politics is not working,\u201d Burnham said in his victory speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone can feel that the country isn\u2019t where it should be. Tonight could \u2013 just could \u2013 be the turning point. From here on, I will give everything that I have got to make it so, to ensure the name Makerfield is forever synonymous with bringing about the change this country needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burnham\u2019s victory is likely to either precipitate Starmer\u2019s resignation or set off a leadership contest pitting the prime minister against the outgoing mayor and Wes Streeting, the former health secretary.<\/p>\n
Under the UK\u2019s political system, MPs can choose a new prime minister without holding a general election.<\/p>\n
Burnham is widely considered a strong favourite to become the next prime minister if he challenges Starmer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve lost belief in Kier Starmer. I just think he\u2019s lost his way,\u201d Keith Davis, who described himself as a \u201cbig union man,\u201d told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
In an Ipsos poll published earlier this week, Burnham was chosen by 25 percent of British adults as the preferred prime minister, compared with 12 percent for Starmer.<\/p>\n
If he does succeed Starmer, Burnham, who was the early favourite in the 2015 Labour leadership race before coming second to Jeremy Corbyn, would be the UK\u2019s seventh prime minister since the country voted for Brexit in 2016.<\/p>\n
After leading Labour to a thumping election victory in 2024, Starmer has been under mounting pressure to step down amid\u00a0widespread public dissatisfaction with his leadership.<\/p>\n
Calls for his resignation within Labour have mounted since the party suffered crushing losses in local and regional elections in May.<\/p>\n
Twenty ministers have resigned from Starmer\u2019s government in less than two years, nearly half of whom expressed a loss of confidence in his leadership or clashed with him on policy, including Streeting.<\/p>\n
Starmer has rebuffed calls to resign, pledging to fight any challenge to his leadership and insisting that such a contest would be a \u201cbad thing for the country\u201d.<\/p>\n
Burnham \u2013 dubbed the \u201cking of the north\u201d for his grassroots appeal across northern England and his willingness to challenge Westminster \u2013 ran on the promise to \u201cchange Labour\u201d to \u201cchange politics and change the country\u201d.<\/p>\n
As mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham built an avid following across the UK\u2019s less developed northern regions by channelling populist themes about elite apathy and industrial decline.<\/p>\n
First elected mayor in 2017, and re-elected in 2021 and 2024, he has criticised the UK\u2019s political system as \u201ctoo London-centric\u201d and taken aim at neoliberal economic policies and trickle-down economics that did not \u201ctrickle down very much at all\u201d.<\/p>\n
In his victory speech, Burnham said that Makerfield would be the \u201ctouchstone\u201d for his politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Makerfield test at the heart of British politics will ensure that the places Westminster has neglected will now get fairness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Burnham, who served in several ministerial portfolios under former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, had been the narrow favourite in the race, holding a five-point lead over Kenyon in an opinion poll released on Saturday by pollster Opinium.<\/p>\n
Labour\u2019s Josh Simons, who previously held the seat of Makerfield, triggered the by-election last month by resigning his seat to allow Burnham to challenge Starmer.<\/p>\n
About 75,000 people were entitled to vote in the constituency, which is located about 320km (200 miles) northwest of London.<\/p>\n
Turnout was 58.75 percent, up from 52.4 percent at the 2024 general election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has cruised to victory in a high-stakes by-election in northern England, paving the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[461,591,59,57,58,50,229,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-646787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-elections","tag-europe","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646787","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=646787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}