Labour faces ‘final chance to change’ as Burnham wins by-election and union warns of Reform threat

Andy Burnham has swept to victory in the Makerfield by-election, winning 24,937 votes and beating Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon by more than 9,000 – a result the Greater Manchester mayor immediately cast as a warning to his own party. “I do say to my own party, this is a final chance to change,” Burnham said in his victory speech. “There will be no second chance.” The win, which Burnham's allies are calling a mandate for a leadership challenge, came as Andrea Egan, the newly elected leader of Unison, the country's biggest union, told the BBC that Labour risked handing power to Reform unless it changed course drastically. “I have spoken out clearly about the threat Reform brings,” Egan said. “It isn’t us that will hand the keys to No10 to Reform – it’s them, unless they change course. And drastically.” Egan, who upset expectations by defeating incumbent general secretary Christina McAnea in December last year, described the union as having been “a sleeping giant” too “subservient” to Labour leadership. In her first interview with a national broadcaster, she said her members were “desperate to have their voices heard” and that Labour had “left wanting”. “Communities are really struggling. They haven’t delivered and my election demonstrated that members were desperate to have their voices heard,” she added. The union leader called on ministers to introduce “progressive policies” including investment in infrastructure, pay restoration, better services and insourcing, and to “ensure that they deliver on promises they made when they came into government”. Burnham, who received 24,927 votes to Kenyon’s 15,696, has set up a potential leadership contest unless Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer steps down. Sir Keir has insisted he will fight any attempt to challenge him and has been building up a war chest for a leadership campaign. Egan, who was expelled from Labour for reposting messages from Socialist Appeal, a Marxist group now proscribed by the party, said her union would not debate “disaffiliation” from Labour at its conference in Brighton this week. She said it was “affiliated to Labour at the moment” and it would be up to members in each region to decide if that was to change. She rejected Nigel Farage’s offer for unions to affiliate to Reform UK instead. But the pressure on Labour is mounting from both the union rank and file and from within its own electoral heartlands – and both Egan and Burnham have made clear they believe the clock is ticking.