Makerfield, a constituency held by Labour for more than a century, has delivered a thumping victory for Andy Burnham — and a pointed warning to Sir Keir Starmer. The outgoing Greater Manchester mayor won more than half the vote, increasing Labour’s majority over Reform UK in a rare feat for a governing party candidate. His opponent, Reform’s Rob Kenyon, finished more than 9,000 votes behind. After the result, Burnham declared that Makerfield had “voted for hope”, calling his victory “a final chance to change” for a Labour government cripplingly unpopular in the polls. The prime minister, who says he will stand and fight any leadership challenge, now faces a newly elected MP expected to challenge him for the keys to No 10.
Nigel Farage, visibly disappointed, conceded his party’s second-place finish was a “disappointing” result. “Burnham has won with a vote share that nobody could quite see coming,” he said in a video clip posted online. The Reform leader attributed Labour’s emphatic win to a desire among voters to eject Sir Keir Starmer from Downing Street. “In many ways, he’s a popular local mayor, just as Boris Johnson was a popular mayor in London just a few years ago,” Farage added. “But what really happened here is it was ‘vote Burnham, get Starmer out’.” He admitted Reform had been “slightly hoist with our own petard”, having previously framed recent elections as a chance to end Starmer’s faltering premiership.
“Andy Burnham wins Makerfield by-election with over half the vote, setting up a Labour leadership challenge against Keir Starmer.”
Farage also expressed frustration with Restore Britain, the right-wing rival founded by ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe, which finished third in a breakthrough night. He claimed “a couple of thousand voters” who would normally back Reform had voted Restore instead. “I would say directly to them, what do you want?” he pleaded. “We are the challenger party to the left in this country. And I would urge you to think again.” Farage had hoped to defeat Burnham and secure a high-profile scalp, but Restore’s performance — built on promises of “the most ambitious programme of mass deportations ever seen in Britain” — drained crucial votes.
Burnham, who now holds a seat in Parliament, intends to use it. In his victory speech he said the result would “bring about a country that works fairly for everywhere and everybody”. With the nominations he needs to trigger a leadership challenge already in hand, the question is no longer whether he will run, but whether he can topple his own party leader. Starmer remains defiant, but the man who beat Farage in Makerfield is now coming for him.