UK PM Keir Starmer braces for showdown after potential challenger Andy Burnham aces byelection
Updated ,first published
London: Labor mayor Andy Burnham has won Britain’s by-election, clearing the way for him to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer and charting a new course for the government after a collapse in support and bitter debate over its direction.
Burnham defeated a candidate from the populist right-wing UK Reform Party to win the seat of Makerfield, located in the north of the country, between Liverpool and Manchester, by a comfortable margin of 54.5 per cent.
The result demonstrated Burnham’s ability to take on the right-wing party at a time of painful national debate over Starmer’s performance and the resignation of senior cabinet ministers.
Speaking after the votes were counted, Burnham said voters knew politics wasn’t working and offered change.
“Everyone can feel that the country is not where it should be,” he said.
“Tonight could be a turning point, it could happen. From now on, I will give everything I can to achieve it.”
Reform and its leader Nigel Farage were rising in the opinion polls and campaigned hard to win Makerfield, but candidate Rob Kenyon emerged with just 34.3 per cent of the vote.
Two years ago, the Conservative Party, which was in power, won only 2.2 percent of the vote. The Greens received a paltry 0.7 percent of the vote; This suggests that voters stood behind Burnham to rule out Reformation.
Burnham had been touted by Labor supporters as a future prime minister but has been out of parliament for the past nine years, serving instead as mayor of Greater Manchester. He served as a minister in the Labor government led by Gordon Brown until he lost office in 2010. He became the minister of health in the last 11 months of the government.
Despite being out of parliament, Starmer has won public support as an “outspoken” figure in the Labor Party, while he has been widely criticized for his cautious approach in his public statements and political strategy.
“I’m telling my own party that this is one last chance for change,” Burnham said at the official announcement of the votes.
“That’s what people have said to me directly on hundreds of doorsteps I’ve stood on. We need to hear it. We need to act on it, and we need to do it right.”
“There will be no second chances, but there is a chance now to build a new politics of unity and hope, away from this outcome tonight, away from the path that has led us to the kind of divided, dark politics we see in the United States.
“We must now follow this path, get this country back on the right track, bring people together again and get things running smoothly again.”
Despite months of media attention as a would-be prime minister, Burnham has yet to put forward major policy ideas and has spoken only in general terms about whether she would take tough decisions on spending cuts, defense spending, welfare reform or the environment.
Because polling stations remain open until 10pm in most UK elections, counting continued until 2am (11am AEST) on Friday, with results being announced before dawn.
In a typical example of British election humour, a candidate known as Count Binface appeared on stage alongside Burnham after receiving 95 votes.
Burnham appears to be the least popular candidate among the potential candidates for prime minister. YouGov poll earlier this week It was revealed that 41 percent of the voters had a negative opinion about him, while 30 percent had a positive opinion.
This compares to 69 per cent who have a negative view of Starmer (24 per cent positive). Farage was viewed negatively by 67 percent and positively by 26 percent.
The next step could be a formal declaration of challenging the Labor leadership, but Starmer attempted to fend off the threat earlier this week by arguing the priority was to find a replacement as mayor of Manchester. He also suggested he might bring Burnham into the cabinet, but Burnham downplayed the possibility.
The moves follow Starmer’s sharp decline in the polls since he brought Labor to power in the July 2024 election after his government suffered backseat rebellions over its welfare and spending policies and lost deputy chancellor Angela Rayner over the tax scandal.
Former health secretary Wes Streeting said he would enter the leadership race after leaving the cabinet last month, and former defense secretary John Healey and former armed forces secretary Al Carns resigned this month over a dispute over defense funding.
Under Labor leadership rules, a candidate must receive the approval of 20 per cent of Labor MPs – that’s 81 of the 403 MPs in the House of Commons – to submit a written application to the party’s secretary to begin voting.
voting is decided later by thousands of Labor Party members and affiliated union members. When the party elected its deputy leader last October, victory went to Burnham’s ally Manchester MP Lucy Powell after 161,000 people voted. Participation in leadership voting may be higher.
Although Burnham has not initiated this formal process at this stage, he has spoken about the leadership during the campaign, leaving little doubt that he will challenge.
“If I get your support, I will try to represent you at the highest level,” he said.
“I think Wes Streeting seems to have started a leadership contest so if that goes ahead I’ll try to get in but I’ll have to persuade Labor members of parliament.”
Throughout months of speculation, British media have reported conflicting claims about support for various Labor leadership candidates, citing unnamed sources within the party. Despite this, no one took a step to trigger this fight with 81 support.
Starmer lost ground in the polls following his decision to appoint sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s friend Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the US, and media focus on the story led to months of headlines about his decision.
And in a result that triggered serious doubts about Labour’s fate, the party lost hundreds of council positions in local government elections in May.
Read more about the pressure on Starmer
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David Crowe is the European correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect with: X or email.
