Nigel Farage urges Right to unite behind Reform to ‘stop Andy Burnham’ as first Makerfield by-election poll shows ‘two-horse race’
Nigel Farage has called on the Right to unite behind Reform to ‘stop Andy Burnham’ as polls show the Makerfield by-election is on a knife edge.
In the first poll of the contest, the Mayor of Greater Manchester received 43 per cent support and Nigel Farage’s party received 40 per cent support.
But this gap was smaller than the 7 per cent support found for Restore Britain, founded by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe; Conservatives were at 2 percent.
Mr Farage said Survation research showed it was a ‘two-horse race’. ‘The only candidate who can stop Andy Burnham is Robert Kenyon. This is a two-horse race; “No one else can come close,” he said.
Parties are stepping up their efforts this weekend, less than a month before the June 18 vote.
The tribulation reflects Mr. Burnham’s great personal ascension; Without a candidate, Labor appears to have lost to Reform by 11 points.
It is known that it is very difficult to sample public opinion in midterm elections, so the survey underlines that the result is very close to being announced.
In the first poll of the contest, Labor received 43 per cent support and Reform 40 per cent, with Andy Burnham (pictured) bidding to return to the House of Commons.
Mr Burnham hopes local “star power” can buck a wider trend after one of his allies dramatically backed out of giving him a path back to Parliament.
So far the Major appears to have been supported by relatively low support from the Greens and Liberal Democrats.
On Friday, Mr Burnham portrayed his bid to return to the House of Commons as an opportunity to get rid of Keir Starmer.
He said it was widely expected that victory would mean ‘changing the Labor Party’ and that it would launch a swift challenge for the keys to No 10.
But Mr Burnham is coming under increasing scrutiny over which direction he will take the Government.
He has backtracked on his promise to rejoin the EU, a view that was already popular with MPs but seen as deeply unhelpful in an area that heavily supports Brexit.
Mr Burnham is believed to have told Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood that he supported a crackdown on immigrants.
But now he remains undecided on whether changes to indefinite leave to remain will apply retroactively; This is seen as crucial to addressing the arrival wave in recent years.
Critics also accused Mr Burnham of diluting his commitment to the proportional representation (PR) voting system.
Other policies the mayor has put forward in the past include increasing the top tax rate to 50p, while he has praised Gordon Brown’s disastrous 10p tax rate.
But this was effectively ignored in Parliament with his statements on Friday, when he officially launched his campaign.
‘I am committed to the manifesto commitments on tax. I think that’s really important from a trust perspective, from a trust perspective,’ Mr Burnham said.
He also suggested ‘wealth’ would be shifted from Southern England to Northern England amid fears council tax overhaul and ‘land value tax’ could leave millions of families facing bigger bills.
Nigel Farage said the contest was a ‘two-horse race’. Reformation candidate Robert Kenyon (left)
