Makerfield by-election live: Polls open in historic vote as Burnham eyes Starmer leadership challenge

Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe has been speaking to voters in Makerfield during today’s by-election.

The party are hoping to offer an alternative to Reform UK, but have been seen by many to be splitting the right-wing vote in the area.

Reform UK’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election has faced backlash in recent weeks after a number of offensive comments made on social media were unearthed.

Robert Kenyon, a plumber and local councillor who stood as Reform’s candidate in the constituency at the 2024 general election, is taking on Labour’s Andy Burnham in Thursday’s by-election in the Greater Manchester seat.

A series of now-deleted social media posts and comments made on rugby league forums by accounts linked to Mr Kenyon have seen him dubbed “not fit to be an MP” and accused of sharing transphobic slurs, Covid misinformation and objectifying women.

However, Nigel Farage has said Reform UK is “unapologetic” about its candidate, telling a press conference earlier this month that the comments were “a few laddish things”.

Angela Rayner has been spotted at Andy Burnham’s campaign hub as voting continues in Makerfield.

The former deputy prime minister has thrown her weight behind Mr Burnham at the polls. While she has not publicly backed him in any potential leadership challenge, many have suggested her allegiances would lie with her Greater Manchester contemporary over Sir Keir Starmer, despite her stint as deputy prime minister under him.

Ms Rayner has also previously been floated as a contender for the leadership herself, but this looks considerably less likely now Mr Burnham could be in the picture.

Labour MPs have been spotted in Makerfield today as voters go to the polls.

The former speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow has been spotted in Makerfield this morning campaigning for Labour’s Andy Burnham.

Once a Tory MP, Mr Bercow joined the Labour Party in June 2021. He was later suspended from the party in 2022.

You can read everything you need to know about the high-stakes vote that could determine the UK’s next prime minister below:

Nigel Farage has criticised Andy Burnham over immigration as he urged voters to get out and vote for Reform UK in Makerfield.

In a post on X, he wrote: “The only way to beat Open Borders Burnham today is by voting for Reform”.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has joined the party’s candidate Rob Kenyon at the polls this morning.

Plumber Mr Kenyon, wearing an England football shirt, drove to the venue in his white van, with Mr Farage in the passenger seat.

About 20 members of the press were outside the polling station to capture photos and footage of their arrival.

Mr Farage joked “it’s not a rugby game” as photographers shouted for his attention.

Andy Burnham has called on Makerfield voters to make the area “forever associated with having brought a chance to British politics” in his final campaign update.

The Labour mayor said his team is out and about and will be knocking on doors – but promised it would be for the “last time”.

“It’s polling day everyone, as you know,” he said in a video. “It’s just a great thing that the power is now where it should be, it’s in your hands. It’s in the hands of the people of this area.”

In a nod to the potential of a future leadership contest he added: “It’s up to you what you decide today. But of course I would say let’s vote for positive change that this country needs.

“Let’s forever associate this area, this constituency, with having brought a change to British politics that it’s long needed.”

The Independent’s Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:

Andy Burnham’s decision to bring Hugh Grant to a pub in Wigan brought some Hollywood glamour to the Makerfield by-election.

But the Labour mayor will also be mindful that British political history is littered with celebrity endorsements that have backfired.

In 1983 Margaret Thatcher was forced to watch as the comedian Kenny Everett, at that stage one of TV’s biggest names, appeared at a Young Conservatives youth rally, wearing a pair of giant foam hands, and yelling “let’s bomb Russia!”.

In 1997 Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher had drinks with the then PM Tony Blair in Downing Street, at the height of what was dubbed ‘Cool Britannia’.

But two years later he suggested he had misjudged Blair’s politics, adding “You live and learn don’t you?”.