In Stubshaw Cross Community Club, hope was palpable. It was the night Andy Burnham won the Makerfield by-election with a resounding victory, a result that could have ended Labour but instead handed the party one last chance. Now Burnham is expected to seek the Labour leadership, and the MPs and advisers who could be given key roles in a future government are already identifiable.
The former transport secretary Louise Haigh was the first of Sir Keir Starmer's cabinet ministers to quit after it emerged in November 2024 that she had a fraud conviction prior to entering parliament. On the backbenches she became a crucial power broker on Labour's soft left and was at the heart of the huge rebellion that scuppered the government's welfare cuts in 2025. She based herself in the Makerfield constituency during the campaign and is in line for a big cabinet job.
“Andy Burnham's resounding Makerfield by-election win sets up a Labour leadership bid, with a tight inner circle ready for key roles.”
Alison Midgley, MP for Knowsley since 2024, worked for Sir Keir's office in opposition following stints at the TUC, Unite and in Jeremy Corbyn's team. She is seen as a plausible candidate for chief whip or even political secretary in Downing Street. Miatta Fahnbulleh resigned as a junior minister for communities after the May elections and has been working on policy ideas for a potential Burnham government. Dan Simons gave up his seat for Burnham and was praised for his selflessness by the new MP; he has been helping on policy and is a likely candidate for a role in Downing Street. Bev Green, currently Burnham's deputy mayor for policing and crime, has been canvassing MPs about their opinions and is seen as a possible candidate for a Downing Street role. Joe Lee, Burnham's closest adviser, ran his first Labour leadership campaign in 2010 and has been running his mayoral office since 2017 – a dead cert for a role. Lucy Powell, the independently elected deputy leader, has her own big role to play regardless of who the Labour leader is.
But hope alone will not be enough. The sense of decline draped across the country has not lifted. Every indicator on the economic dashboard – in Wigan as in Westminster – is flashing red: debt too high, growth too low, living standards stagnant. The mood music is one of despair: riots, violent crime, and failed integration. The blanket of pessimism is not immovable, but lifting it will take political leadership of the highest order – leadership that forces Labour to face resolutely outward. The last great industrial revolution remade Britain socially, economically, and politically. This one will too, and Makerfield must light the blue touchpaper for a controlled explosion: shaping change rather than resisting it, channelling disruption towards national renewal. Central to that is a story about Britain's power, beginning with power in its most literal sense – recasting the government's Clean Power 2030 mission as Cheaper…