Andy Burnham’s emphatic win in the Makerfield by-election has intensified calls for Keir Starmer to step aside as Labour leader. The Greater Manchester mayor secured a majority of 9,231, nearly double that of his predecessor, with 54% of the vote – about 20 points ahead of Reform UK. Allies hope Burnham can be installed in No 10 within days, citing the result as proof that his brand of politics can defeat division and lead Labour to victory.
Louise Haigh, who helped run Burnham’s campaign, said on Thursday night: “I hope that [Starmer] will consider an orderly and managed transition. We have said that the party is in an existential crisis and things cannot continue.” Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy called the win “astonishing” and said Burnham was the “only Labour politician in the country that could have pulled off that result”.
The by-election was seen as a test of Labour’s ability to beat Reform UK in its strongest seats. Makerfield was the seventh closest of the 90 seats where Reform finished second to Labour at the 2024 general election, and Reform had won over half the vote in local elections there. Burnham’s victory, however, was decisive, with his vote share comfortably exceeding the combined total for Reform and Restore Britain.
Attention now turns to Westminster, where Burnham’s allies claim he has the support of more than the 81 MPs needed to trigger a leadership contest. They hope ministers will persuade Starmer to agree to an orderly transition rather than a protracted battle. Polling suggests Labour would be about six percentage points higher if Burnham were prime minister, though even his allies acknowledge he would face the same policy dilemmas that have tripped up Starmer.
Starmer posted a brief congratulations on social media, writing: “Voters chose Labour’s campaign of hope and optimism over division and hate.” But the result has emboldened those who believe change at the top is necessary. Joe Twyman of Deltapoll said: “The phoney war of the Labour leadership contest is now over.”
