Andy Burnham has triumphed over Reform and won the Makerfield by-election, securing his return to Westminster and setting up a widely expected challenge to Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership.
The Greater Manchester mayor won by a sizeable 9,231 votes, comfortably seeing off the challenge from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in what he hailed as a “turning point” in British politics.
The result was met with cheers and applause from Labour campaigners, before Mr Burnham warned Labour “must act” on its “final chance to change” in his victory speech.
Mr Burnham will now finally return to Westminster, where he is widely expected to challenge the prime minister and make an official bid for Labour leadership within weeks.
Follow reaction from the Makerfield by-election here
“Everyone knows that politics isn’t working,” he said. “Everyone can feel that the country isn’t where it should be. Tonight could, just could, be the turning point.”
He added: “I do say to my own party: this is a final chance to change.
“This is what people said directly to me on the hundreds of doorsteps that I stood on. We must hear it, we must act upon it and we must get it right. There will be no second chance.”
Sir Keir congratulated Andy Burnham on his win in Makerfield, saying “voters chose Labour’s campaign of hope and optimism over division and hate”.
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But Mr Burnham’s allies have called on the prime minister to set out an “orderly and managed transition” of power, despite his repeated vow to fight any attempt to challenge him and reports he has been building up a war chest for a leadership campaign.
Former cabinet minister Louise Haigh, who has been close to the Burnham by-election campaign, said she hoped Sir Keir would “do what’s best for both the country and the Labour Party”.
Mr Burnham increased Labour’s majority in a seat which voted for Reform in the council elections last month, achieving a positive swing of over 3 per cent.
It marked a decisive win over Reform UK, who won just 34.5 per cent of the vote compared to Mr Burnham’s 54.8 per cent in the target constituency, proving Labour could win back voters in their heartlands.
At the count earlier, culture secretary Lisa Nandy said that Mr Burnham deserved to be heard “loud and clear at the top of politics” after his successful campaign.
She later called the result “history in the making”.
She said: “What Andy’s shown here is that there is something that he brings, a willingness to go out and fight for the change that people need, to take on any system and any person who stands in the way and to be bold and to wear his heart on his sleeve, and people have responded.
“I think that with him back in the top team, at the top table, helping to drive that change, I think we’ll be in a really strong position.”
The results will serve as a major blow to Reform UK, as it faces yet another by-election loss in a target constituency.
The party performed exceptionally well at last month’s local elections, which saw them win every council ward in the Makerfield constituency, securing around half the vote. Labour was left trailing behind, having secured little more than a quarter of the ballots.
As polls closed at 10pm, a Reform source said they were feeling “very good”, and that they were confident their vote had turned out, but later said that the “sampling” of boxes when they are first opened suggest they are about to lose.
Meanwhile, confidence in Mr Burnham’s camp grew as the evening went on.
Polls ahead of the contest also suggested Reform would be prevented from beating Mr Burnham in the contest by Restore Britain splitting the right-wing vote. However, Mr Burnham secured more votes than both Reform and Restore combined, outperforming all the opinion polls published during the campaign.
Mr Burnham now vacates the Greater Manchester mayoralty by becoming Makerfield MP, winning the seat that was vacated by Josh Simons to allow him the chance of returning to Westminster and potentially becoming prime minister.
In an attempt to address criticism that he has only become Makerfield’s MP to further his own ambitions, he said: “It will never be a stepping stone to me, but instead will be my touchstone.”
Wes Streeting, who last month quit as health secretary, says he will join a leadership contest if Mr Burnham stands against Sir Keir.
