Andy Burnham Launches Makerfield By-Election Campaign

Andy Burnham has launched his by-election campaign in Makerfield with a “clarion call for change”.

The mayor for Greater Manchester is widely expected to formally challenge Keir Starmer’s leadership if he wins this parliamentary seat.

The soft-left politician’s launch is therefore seen as both a campaign to win Makerfield and a promise to offer a different kind of government.

“Hope is in the air, can you feel it?” Burnham said.

“This is not business as usual. This is not more of the same,” he continued. “British politics is tired. It needs a new script.

“And over the next four weeks, the people of Makerfield are going to write that script.”

He added: “I know my own party needs to change. We need to be better than we’ve been. We’ve not been good enough. And I want to leave people in no doubt today, a vote for me in this by-election campaign is a vote to change Labour.”

The by-election was triggered by Labour MP Josh Simons, previously a junior minister, who stood down earlier this month to offer Burnham a path back to Westminster.

The resignation came amid rising calls for Starmer to quit following Labour’s shocking defeat in the local elections on May 7.

However the prime minister has ignored such pleas and insisted no one has initiated a contest against him.

If Burnham wins this by-election, he will need the support of 81 MPs to formally trigger a leadership race.

His popularity within the parliamentary Labour Party means that he is almost certainly going to win any such contest.

However, he must win over voters in Makerfield first, a pro-Leave constituency which voted for Reform in all eight of its wards during the local elections.

During his launch, Burnham also focused on his local links as his home was just two miles from where he currently lives.

“I love it so much that I brought my own family up here, I live here, I have lived here for 25 years. My home is two miles over there. I could walk to this campaign centre,” he said.

He listed his successes since become Greater Manchester mayor in 2017, noting that he has worked with Liverpool to “build a new politics” which is on a “place first basis rather than party first”.

Burnham also pointed out that the Makerfield constituency has struggled with the cost of living, poverty and unemployment.

He said: “We’ve had 40 years of policies that have hurt the high streets of this constituency, 40 years of policies that have left people struggling to afford the everyday basics of their lives.

“Policies that took away the good jobs that were once in these communities and have not done anything to replace them or put them back.”

The by-election is set to take place on June 18. Burnham will be up against Reform candidate Robert Kenyon, the Liberal Democrats’ Jake Austin and the Tories’ Michael Winstanley.

The Greens’ Chris Kennedy stood down after less than 12 hours in the post and the party is on the hunt for a new candidate.

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