![\"Sarah,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/SEI_302081610_957a3a.jpg\")
Sarah thinks the former Manchester mayor may have been given \u2018too much\u2019 credit for the city\u2019s regeneration in recent years (Photo: The i Paper)<\/p>\nSadness, anger, delight, disinterest. Andy Burnham\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Burnham held the mayoral job for nine years, winning three elections, and for many commentators he has become synonymous with Manchester\u2019s resurgence.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But not all of his former mayoral constituents will be sad to see the back of him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat has he was actually done for Manchester?\u201d said Dudley, a 64-year-old decorator from Bury, in the hours after the seismic by-election result. \u201cNot a lot. I don\u2019t think so anyway. He\u2019s made a lot of promises, but nothing\u2019s ever happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dudley, a Reform voter, said he sees Burnham as a politician who is more \u201cstyle over substance\u201d, adding: \u201cHe\u2019s just like a trinket, somebody dangling about.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He is particularly aggrieved by the strains being experienced by the NHS, a problem he blames on immigration. \u201cI\u2019ve waited three years for a knee operation,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Dudley \u201ccan\u2019t see\u201d Burnham getting to No 10. \u201cHe\u2019s not got the va va voom,\u201d he said, \u201clike Nigel Farage \u2013 he\u2019s got it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarah thinks the former Manchester mayor may have been given \u2018too much\u2019 credit for the city\u2019s regeneration in recent years (Photo: The i Paper)<\/p>\n
Sarah, 42, from Mossley, believes Burnham \u2013 who earned the nickname \u201cKing of the North\u201d for his fightback against Tory government restrictions during Covid \u2013 has had \u201ca bit too much\u201d credit for the success of Manchester in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think maybe he did help in some respects, but there\u2019s people that you don\u2019t see in the news that helped as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Asked how she feels about him stepping down as mayor, she added: \u201cI\u2019m not sure if \u2018sad\u2019 is the right word because he\u2019s been around for a while. Maybe it\u2019s time for someone else to take over and bring something new.\u201d<\/p>\n
She agreed that some people in the region might see his ambitions in a negative light: \u201cYes, because he wants to be prime minister doesn\u2019t he? I always get that impression that a lot of politicians are very individualistic. It\u2019s like a game isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s like, do you really care about these issues or do you just want to get into power?\u201d<\/p>\n
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. \u201cI 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,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think you can take away what he has done [in Manchester], but it just depends what he does in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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\u2019t believe that was nearly 10 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Darren](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/SEI_302081646_3faef8.jpg\")
Darren Sykes, from Ramsbottom, sees Burnham as \u2018a bit of a pioneer, someone that wants to push boundaries\u2019 (Photo: The i Paper)<\/p>\n
Darren Sykes, from Ramsbottom, was \u201cvery happy\u201d with the Makerfield by-election result and believes Burnham would \u201cdo a far better job\u201d as prime minister than Starmer. \u201cI would completely go with that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Describing him as \u201ca bit of a pioneer, someone that wants to push boundaries\u201d he said the former mayor \u201cgets the area, gets what people want. And I think from my perspective, there\u2019s a lot of people have really got him on side\u201d, whereas with Starmer, \u201cI don\u2019t think he gets it. He says the right things and there\u2019s this gesturing, but I don\u2019t think he really gets us and gets what we want.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Andy Burnham, you do get that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sadness, anger, delight, disinterest. Andy Burnham\u2019s victory in the Makerfield by-election, and the end of his time as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[19306,59,57,58,3572,195536,2053,1768,50,139506,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-650895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-andy-burnham","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-greater-manchester","tag-labour-leadership","tag-labour-party","tag-manchester","tag-news","tag-north-of-england","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650895","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=650895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}