The mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has been selected to contest the Makerfield by-election for Labour. His announcement that he was putting himself forward forced others seeking to oust Keir Starmer as prime minister to slow their pace. And it now seems unlikely that anyone will fire the starting gun on a leadership contest until Burnham has at least had a chance to join the pack.
In UK politics right now, the only certainty is that nothing is certain. But what we do know is, as Labour politicians go, Burnham is unusually popular. His selection was well received among his colleagues, and he is regularly the only UK politician of any political stripe with a net-positive favourability rating.
