Labour's Andy Burnham won election for a seat in UK Parliament

Labour's Andy Burnham, the current mayor of Greater Manchester, has won a special election for a seat in the UK's Parliament. The victory puts him in a position to potentially challenge embattled British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Labour mayor Andy Burnham cleared a path on Friday to ousting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, potentially ushering in a new bout of political instability, by decisively winning a parliamentary seat in northern England. Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor nicknamed "King of the North", won the contest in Makerfield in northwest England with 54.8% of the vote. He beat the candidate for Nigel Farage's populist Reform UK party, on 34.5%. Burnham indicated he wanted to counter the rise of polarising, populist politics.

ANDY BURNHAM,Mayor of Greater Manchester: "I spoke in the campaign about the need to change politics. I promise to lead by example from the front. As your member of Parliament, I know people who traditionally vote for the conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and perhaps more recently in May for Reform UK have given me their support in this election. I will always have respect to them for that and out of respect for them, I will always take a place first rather than a party first approach. And I will focus on problem solving rather than point scoring, and I will work hard after this by election to heal the divisions of this campaign and let it be really understood that I will be your MP. "

Burnham has led Manchester since 2017, overseeing rapid regeneration for the city where the Industrial Revolution was forged. Burnham has backed the nationalisation of key public services and criticised what he called four decades of failed neo-liberal economics, and has said he would stand in any contest to replace Starmer. Starmer, who has previously maintained he will fight any leadership challenge, took to social media to congratulate Burnham. Starmer's popularity has rapidly declined since he led the centre-left Labour Party to a landslide election victory in July 2024. He has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living, and been hamstrung by repeated missteps, including his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as the UK ambassador to the United States. Labour is losing liberal voters to the growing Green Party, and facing a rising Reform UK, which consistently leads in nationwide opinion polls.