Will Burnham make it

May 16, 2026 at 5:54 am 3 comments

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.}

*Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham (56) was spotted jogging in Warrington in an Everton retro shirt on Friday morning*

^{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. The vote will be held on June 18th, the day after England will have started into the World Cup with their first game against Croatia.}

^{As it won’t be easy to win that initial game it will not be an easy win for Burnham, either: 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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3 Comments Add your own

1. RapidHammer | June 8, 2026 at 7:19 am

According to Iain Dale, if Labour party members have a choice of Wes Streeting, Andy Burnham and Keir Starmer, and if they are voting with the country’s best interests at heart, then Wes Streeting is the best choice.

Iain goes on saying about Burnham:

“His basic trouble is similar to the one which afflicts Keir Starmer. He has no basic ideological grounding. He’s like a cushion that bears the impression of the last arse that sat on it. He will be whatever you want him to be, and have no qualms about saying the exact opposite to the next person that shows any sign of supporting him. His flip-flopping is legendary. This is the man who bangs on about the power of the state and seems perfectly happy to nationalise anything in sight, yet suffers memory loss when he is reminded of the fact that he is the only Health Secretary ever to launch a plan to privatise an NHS hospital – Hinchingbrooke, lest we forget. Andy Burnham is a nice bloke. He’s amiable and a good salesman. That gets you a long way in politics, but it is not the main qualification for the top job.”
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- 2. RapidHammer | June 19, 2026 at 6:46 am
  - Andy Burnham will return to Westminster and is expected to challenge Sir Keir Starmer after comfortably winning the Makerfield by-election
  - The Mayor of Greater Manchester saw off Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon, securing a majority of 9,231, with a 54.8 per cent share of the vote
  - Mr Burnham used his acceptance speech to fire a warning shot at Sir Keir, declaring Labour had “a final chance to change”
  - He said it was a “wrench” to resign as the Mayor of Greater Manchester, with his victory triggering a mayoral contest in the coming weeks
  - Reform finished comfortably ahead of Restore Britain in Makerfield, with 34.5 per cent of the vote to Restore’s 6.8 per cent
  Reply
3. He’s made it to No.10 | EXTRA TIME | July 21, 2026 at 11:06 am

[…] Manchester via Makerfield (by-election) to Downing Street No.10Andy Burnham became the new Prime Minister on July, 20th. Sir Keir Starmer […]
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