Greater Manchester mayor wins seat in UK parliament

Labour's Andy Burnham, the popular mayor of Greater Manchester, won a special election for a seat in the UK Parliament and signalled Friday that he will use it to challenge embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer for leadership of the country.

Starmer said he planned to fight for his job, but it is reported that a growing number of colleagues are urging him to make a dignified exit.

Andy Burnham is a political insider turned outsider who aims to be Britain's next prime minister after he won a seat in parliament Friday

ALISON MCKENZIE FOLAN\Acting returning officer "And I do hereby declare that Andy Burnham is duly elected. Thank you."

The 56-year-old politician presents himself as an amiable northern everyman who prefers T-shirts to a suit and tie and spends spare time playing football or spinning 1990s tunes during DJ battles. He's also an experienced politician whose career has taken him from high-level government jobs to the mayoralty of Greater Manchester, and now to the cusp of the prime minister's office.

Burnham was born and raised in a pocket of northwest England between Liverpool and Manchester, the son of a British Telecom engineer and a receptionist. He joined the Labour Party as a teenager, attended Cambridge University and was first elected to Parliament in 2001.

He was a lawmaker for a decade and a half, rising through the ranks under Prime Minister Tony Blair and serving in Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Cabinet between 2007 and 2010.

He ran twice for the leadership of the Labour Party, in 2010 and 2015, and lost badly each time, before quitting Westminster to run for Manchester mayor. His tenure has seen him nicknamed the King of the North, a "Game of Thrones"-inspired nod both to his championing of his home region and his barely disguised political ambition.

Residents in Makerfield, U.K., where Burnham decisively won the northwestern England seat over Reform UK's candidate, reacted to his historic by-election victory on Friday.

ERNEST SHERMAN\70-year-old Makerfield resident "I think it's a good result. I voted tactically, right? I voted Andy Burnham because I don't believe Keir Starmer has done a good job. So I voted tactical knowing that Andy Burnham has a chance to replace Starmer. So it will still be Labour, but he will have different views."

ALFIE SMITH\21-year-old Makerfield resident "I'm not very happy that Labour have got the vote I feel, I feel that Reform should have come in and put the foot down with what's going on.

Obviously, there's a lot going on at the minute, isn't there? A lot of controversial stuff that's going on but I feel Reform could have done more about it and they would do more about if they do get the vote in the future."