Politics Home Article | Andy Burnham Says He Will Run A By-Election Campaign For “Change”

Andy Burnham launched his Makerfield by-election campaign on Friday (Alamy)

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Last week, Labour MP and former minister Josh Simons announced he would give up his Makerfield constituency – after being elected for the first time just two years ago – to allow Greater Manchester Mayor Burnham a shot at re-entering Parliament via a by-election.

With Burnham now having been selected as the Labour candidate, the by-election will go ahead on 18 June. If he wins, the mayor is expected to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership. 

“British politics is tired,” Burnham said, addressing a crowd of supporters at the Labour campaign launch in Makerfield on Friday morning. 

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

He repeatedly tapped into a sense of Westminster politics not working for people around the country.

“This by-election will force Westminster to focus on the places it usually looks past,” he said.

“I love this place, I love the people of this place, but what I have inside is a burning sense of injustice that the proud communities of this place face a Westminster system that puts them at the bottom of the list. They should be at the top of the list.”

He called for “change to Westminster politics so that it works for people”.

“This by-election is a clarion call for change, change for people, a place I love so much,” Burnham continued.

“Change to the economy, change to education, change to housing, change to transport, change to care, and yes, to make it all possible, change to politics. 

Summarising his campaign in three words, Burnham said: “I’m for us.”

He also said he recognised that the Labour Party “needs to change”. 

“We need to be better than we’ve been,” he said. 

“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. It is a vote to give the people here in these communities who supported us through the years their party back. This is a vote for a party that is solidly on the side of working-class people and working-class communities.”

On transport, Burnham said “I like my buses”, referring to the scheme he oversaw which brought Greater Manchester buses back under public control in 2023. However, he highlighted ongoing concerns about the cost of rail journeys.

“£364 is the cost of an anytime return from Wigan North Western to London Euston,” he said. 

“So how can people here connect with the capital and all of the opportunities it’s got, if they cannot afford those train fares? We need to use rail re-nationalisation to reduce those train fares and make them affordable to people again.”

He also brought Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram to stand alongside him, and praised the successes of Greater Manchester and Liverpool since they both left Westminster as MPs to become mayors.

“In those ten years we have built a new politics,” Burnham said. 

“We’ve worked on a place-first basis, rather than party first. We’ve focused on problem-solving rather than point scoring. And you know what? When you do that and you work differently, it’s amazing what you can achieve, isn’t it?”

Burnham also pointed to the need to change education and advocated for an education system “that doesn’t just focus on the university route”, but “focuses on the kids who want technical pathways to those new industries”.

He said he was feeling “emotional” about the campaigning bringing him “back to where it all began” in Westminster, and batted away accusations that he is using this by-election as a “stepping stone” to power.

“How can it be a stepping stone if it takes you back to where it all began?” he said.

“Surely it can’t, and the reason it comes back to is because I’ve never stopped what I started 25 years ago. I fought for these people in these places as a member of Parliament, I fought for them as a minister… We fought for people in the North West of England, fought for people here, we fought for them as mayors together…

“I would carry that fight forward if I am lucky enough to be elected as the MP for Makerfield. I’ll take that fight as high as I can possibly take it, and that’s the journey I’ve always been on. And it’s not a new journey for me, it’s the same journey, just in a different phase, and that’s what this is all about.”