In The Room | Has Andy Burnham united the left? | In The Room

After all, it wasn’t that close. Andy Burnham received 9,241 votes more than second-placed Reform candidate Robert Kenyon. Even talk of British Reestablishment stealing votes from Reformation ultimately proved of little consequence. The reality of the Makerfield by-election was a massive win for Labour’s Andy Burnham and a disappointing night for Nigel Farage, whose efforts to turn the divide in recent weeks have failed.

In this bonus episode, we react to this week’s two Westminster by-elections, with voters in Makerfield and Aberdeen South heading to the polls. The latter is an interesting case study of single-issue campaigns and signals a possible revival of the Conservative Party in Scotland. We also explain what our advice would be to Andy Burnham as efforts to oust Keir Starmer from No 10 heat up.

new episodes in the room drop every week. Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.