{"id":7752,"date":"2026-06-20T15:07:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/?p=7752"},"modified":"2026-06-20T14:55:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T11:55:20","slug":"blair-era-relic-burnham-wins-special-election-eyes-pm-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/blair-era-relic-burnham-wins-special-election-eyes-pm-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Blair-Era Relic Burnham Wins Special Election, Eyes PM Seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to <em>Breitbart News<\/em>, Labour veteran <strong>Andy Burnham<\/strong> won Thursday&#8217;s Makerfield by-election by a wider margin than anticipated, with results announced in the early hours of Friday morning. He defeated Reform&#8217;s <strong>Rob Kenyon<\/strong>, who came in second place.<\/p>\n<p>Burnham secured 24,927 votes, capturing 55 percent of the total, while Kenyon received 15,696 votes at 35 percent. Turnout reached 59 percent of eligible voters, an unusually high figure for a UK by-election.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nigel Farage<\/strong> acknowledged that Burnham had benefited from widespread disapproval of the Prime Minister, though he maintained that Reform UK remains the dominant national party on the centre-right despite his candidate&#8217;s defeat.<\/p>\n<p>The victory opens a clear path for Burnham to become Prime Minister. Labour insiders have reportedly anointed him as Starmer&#8217;s replacement and expect a smooth transition, but the Prime Minister has signaled he will not step aside willingly.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ElectionMapsUK\/status\/2067819790891102223\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Having survived May&#8217;s catastrophic national local election results, the Starmer camp maintains that changing leaders mid-term signals weakness that voters will punish. Whether this assessment holds true remains uncertain, but it cannot obscure the reality that Starmer&#8217;s public approval ratings have collapsed to historic lows with little prospect of recovery.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to the inevitable leadership challenge ahead, Starmer declared his intention to fight. He stated this morning: <em>If there is a contest, then yes, I will stand<\/em>, adding that he would not walk away from the position.<\/p>\n<p>Burnham addressed supporters in Makerfield this morning and, while stopping short of formally announcing a leadership bid, made clear his intentions and priorities. The election had opened up the space for real change and demonstrated the need to change Labour, he argued, before outlining a series of national policy proposals.<\/p>\n<p>His primary pitch centered on reforming Whitehall procurement rules to mandate buying British goods as part of a reindustrialization agenda. He also signaled a major education overhaul that would reverse the Blair-era push toward universal university attendance, instead prioritizing technical education to support manufacturing growth.<\/p>\n<p>Burnham also acknowledged mass migration concerns raised repeatedly by voters during the campaign. He said he heard on doorsteps throughout the district worries about the unfairness of the immigration system, calling these concerns ones Labour must address.<\/p>\n<p>The mayor also took aim at Farage&#8217;s Reform, characterizing it as a party of darkness and division. He invoked anti-American sentiment common on the British left, warning that voting Reform could mean Britain becoming like the United States.<\/p>\n<p>This by-election victory marks Burnham&#8217;s second attempt to return to Parliament after leaving for his mayoral role. In January, Starmer used his authority as party leader to block Burnham from standing for an earlier vacant seat prepared for him by party rebels. The Prime Minister evidently lacked sufficient political capital to attempt the same maneuver twice.<\/p>\n<p>Burnham&#8217;s path to power has been marked by repeated setbacks at the hands of Labour leadership. He has already run for party leader twice, losing first to <strong>Ed Miliband<\/strong> and later to hard-left Palestine advocate <strong>Jeremy Corbyn<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>While Burnham may enjoy strong backing among Labour insiders that could render the coming leadership contest a mere formality, this offers no guarantee of national revival for Labour, regardless of his strong performance in a special election in his home territory.<\/p>\n<p>He has already committed to governing under Labour&#8217;s 2024 election manifesto, severely constraining his room for policy changes. Any polling boost from a new face at the top may prove short-lived. Though one of Burnham&#8217;s greatest strengths is spending the Starmer era outside Westminster, he steps directly into Starmer&#8217;s damaged legacy without the option of calling a snap general election he cannot guarantee winning.<\/p>\n<p>Significant resistance within the Labour Party itself also remains a factor that could complicate Burnham&#8217;s path forward, as <em>Breitbart News<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><em>With information from <a href=\"https:\/\/breitbart.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Breitbart News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham&#8217;s commanding by-election victory returns him to Parliament and positions him to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer for Labour&#8217;s leadership despite Starmer vowing to fight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":7751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[5949,17,941,6634,18,15,48],"nfg_topic":[134],"class_list":["post-7752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-andy-burnham","tag-keir-starmer","tag-labour-party","tag-makerfield-by-election","tag-nigel-farage","tag-reform-uk","tag-united-kingdom","nfg_topic-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7804,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7752\/revisions\/7804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7752"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=7752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}