Politics Home | Andy Burnham Says He Is “Not Going To Hold Back” On “Early Change” To The House Of Lords

Andy Burnham at the launch of his campaign as Labour’s candidate for the Makerfield by-election, 22 May 2026 (PA Images / Alamy)

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The Greater Manchester mayor was speaking at a campaign stop on Friday in the Makerfield constituency, where he is Labour’s parliamentary candidate in a by-election. If he wins on 18 June, he has confirmed that he hopes to replace Keir Starmer in No 10.

Asked by The House whether he still backed turning the Lords into a ‘Senate of Regions and Nations’, with seats for metro mayors included in it, he stood by his support for overhauling the Upper Chamber and said it should be “the first place to look” for cutting “the cost of politics”.

“I wouldn’t rule out quite an early change, and possibly the 2029 general election or beyond, because I’ve long believed that there’s a first stage of Lords reform, which is indirect election that could be linked to a general election, and I just think we can’t delay this any longer,” Burnham said.

“I don’t think we can justify half of our national legislature being unelected. I think this is something that is, in many ways, quite scandalous.

“If you think about this constituency and the feeling here that Westminster looks past it – when you look at the flooding issues it’s got, the illegal tip, poor infrastructure, a whole host of other issues. Is it a surprise to people here that that might be like that when you have a House of Lords that’s largely drawn from within the M25?”

He added: “I can’t justify, personally, 800-plus members of the House of Lords. I don’t think – with great respect to many people in it, because I have true great respect, because there’s some incredible people in there – what the country spends on the House of Lords is actually justified by what the output is.

“I’m just being honest with you. I’m not going to hold back on it, actually, because I just think we’ve allowed this to persist for too long. If you want to cut the cost of politics, that’s the first place to look.”

In an interview with The House in November 2023, Burnham said reform of the Upper Chamber was urgent.

“I heard a narrative when I was in government a lot – that all that constitutional stuff, it’s not really a priority, we’ll get round to it at a different time. I’ve come around to the thinking that you can’t actually do that, that the wiring of the country is part of the problem,” he said before the 2024 general election.

Burnham also told The House on Friday that he maintains his support for changing Labour’s position on standing candidates in Northern Ireland. The party has a longstanding policy of not contesting elections in the devolved nation.

The leadership hopeful said his endorsement of electoral reform, which would introduce a switch to a more proportional voting system, could facilitate the change to Labour’s refusal to field candidates in Northern Ireland.

“Yes, I’ve had a position on that going back. But it would obviously require careful conversations with our sister party, the SDLP, and with other political parties in Northern Ireland. I wouldn’t want to blunder in and create an issue.

“But I do have an in-principle commitment that democracy should allow the range of parties to be represented, and personally I am in favour of more proportional systems, and that allows that approach, because in that type of system it’s not the case of one party not contesting where a sister party is involved. I just think it allows more collaboration between parties.”

Burnham was at a pub in Orrell announcing his call to cut business rates by 20 per cent for pubs and music venues and to remove small, family, high-street businesses, including hairdressers and cafes, from business rates altogether.

He said Labour had “got it wrong on small businesses” and the policy would be funded by raising rates on warehouses used by online tech giants and via action on empty retail spaces on the high street.

A Survation poll published on Thursday put Burnham 10 per cent ahead of his closest rival, Reform candidate Robert Kenyon (49 per cent to 39 per cent).