Starmer challenger Burnham wins key election, defeats Farage’s Reform UK

Andy Burnham, the declared internal challenger to Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, has won a seat in the British House of Commons following a by-election in the northern English constituency of Makerfield on Thursday.

According to Junge Freiheit, Burnham secured 54.8 percent of the vote, comfortably defeating Robert Kenyon of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, who received 34.5 percent. Rebecca Shepherd, representing Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain, came third with 6.8 percent. Candidates from all other parties, including the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and Greens, each received less than three percent of the vote.

Nigel Farage expressed disappointment with the outcome, posting a video on X in which he acknowledged that the election message had effectively become “vote Burnham to remove Starmer.” He noted that Reform UK had won 50 percent in local council elections across Makerfield constituencies in early May, suggesting his party had fallen victim to its own strategy. Farage conceded that the Labour candidate had been a popular mayor in multiple ways, comparing him to Boris Johnson’s time leading London.

The by-election follows a devastating local election result for Labour in May, when the centre-left party lost more than half its representatives in borough, city, and county councils nationwide. Nearly 100 MPs subsequently called for Starmer’s resignation, which he rejected. During the campaign, Burnham explicitly stated his intention to replace Starmer as party and government leader, declaring that a vote for him was a vote to change Labour.

Polling firm YouGov identifies Burnham as the most popular Labour politician. The 56-year-old previously served in the House of Commons from 2001 to 2017 before becoming mayor of the Manchester metropolitan area. He held several ministerial and junior ministerial positions between 2005 and 2010. Burnham is regarded as representing the “soft left” within the party, advocating for expanded social welfare, reindustrialization, and less restrictive migration policies. He also supports Britain’s return to the European Union, though he revised several of these positions during the campaign.

Kenyon, his main right-wing challenger, had achieved the sixth-best result for Reform UK nationwide in the 2024 general election with 31.8 percent of the vote. The 41-year-old tradesman faced accusations of misogyny during the by-election campaign after the left-wing Hope Not Hate foundation published some of his older social media posts. In one Twitter post, now X, he had endorsed inappropriate comments about a television presenter.

Reform UK campaigners repeatedly accused Restore Britain members of harassment and intimidation during the race. Shortly before polling day, Restore Britain distanced itself from a fake campaign van bearing the slogan “Muslims for Reform.” The alleged driver, James Henry Holmes, had participated as a campaign volunteer.

Restore Britain was founded in February 2026 as a breakaway from Farage’s Reform UK. Party chairman Lowe had been expelled from Reform UK the previous year.

With information from Junge Freiheit