EXTRA TIME

Will Burnham make it

May 16, 2026 at 5:54 am Leave a comment

in Makerfield?

^{The constituency of Makerfield in Greater Manchester, south of Wigan, has been thrust into the spotlight after Josh Simons, the sitting MP, stood down. He will make way for Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, to stand in a by-election as he begins his perilous journey back to Westminster with his eye on the keys to No 10.}

^{People here in the constituency of Warrington, overnight, hold a lot of power. About 77,000 will get the chance to effectively decide whether Burnham can return to the House of Commons, challenge unpopular prime minister Keir Starmer and become the next prime minister himself.}

^{It won’t be an easy win though: latest polling shows that Reform have an 82 per cent chance of winning the seat, compared with Labour’s 17 per cent. Yet these figures do not count for a Burnham bounce. Should the so-called “King of the North”, a former Labour minister, win the seat of Makerfield — where Labour was decimated by Nigel Farage’s Reform in last week’s local elections — he will prove that he has the ability to win against the grain of the party’s current fortunes.}

^{In such circumstances, The Times writes, it would be hard to see how he does not become Britain’s 59th prime minister in the last 300 years and its seventh in the last decade. In case he succeeds Keir Starmer, The Times believes that he would take Britain to the left.}

^{But first he has to make it in Makerfield…}

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