in the north of England, has already earned a place in the political history of the United Kingdom. , has achieved an overwhelming victory in those elections, with 54.8% of the votes, and opens as head of the Labor Party and as prime minister.
Burnham has clearly prevailed over the two far-right candidates. With 24,927 votes, he has achieved more support than the sum of the 15,696 achieved by Robert Kenyon (Reform UK, Nigel Farage’s party) and the 3,111 of Rebecca Sheperd (Restore Britain, a split from the previous one). In this way he demonstrates that he is the most powerful political asset.
The former mayor of Manchester, for all intents and purposes, has won a seat in the British Parliament, the essential condition to be able to participate in a primary process, and he has immediately made it clear, in his victory acceptance speech, that his ambitions now lie in Downing Street and in the position of prime minister.
“Everyone knows that this country is not working as it should. Everyone knows that the United Kingdom is not where it should be. Tonight could be the turning point. From now on, I will do everything possible so that the name of Makerfield is always synonymous with the idea of achieving the change that the country needs and with the idea of recovering something that we had lost: hope for the future,” Burnham proclaimed shortly after three in the morning (four, in Spanish peninsular time) in Wigan, nothing more. the counting of the votes has been completed and the results have been officially announced.
Makerfield was one of the by-elections (by-electionin British political jargon) most relevant in the recent history of the United Kingdom. Every time a deputy resigns or leaves his seat vacant (due to illness, death or other reason), the voters of his constituency are called to the polls. Normally these votes have little importance. They only serve as a thermometer to know the popularity of the party in Government or the opposition. In this case, however, they were much more.
When in the municipal elections in England and the autonomous elections in Scotland and Wales, the internal rebellion accelerated in the parliamentary group that until now has supported the Starmer Government. Up to one hundred deputies publicly demanded that the prime minister step aside or announce a withdrawal schedule.
There were potential candidates to succeed him, who announced his resignation with an extremely harsh letter against Starmer, whom he accused of lack of leadership.
But the favorite candidate of the majority of Labor MPs and members was Burnham, the “king of the north”, who for nine years had boosted Manchester’s economic growth with policies of redistribution and boosting public services, such as transport. His speech against “forty years of neoliberalism” that began with Margaret Thatcher resonated among the hundreds of thousands of people disappointed with the Starmer Government.
Hours after Minister Streeting resigned, another MP, Josh Simons, resigned from his Makerfield seat to speed up the process. “I stand aside so that Andy Burnham can return home, fight to re-enter Parliament and, if elected, promote the change that our country demands,” he wrote on the social network X.
The battle ahead
Burnham has won the Makerfield seat, but he has done something else: he has proven to be the candidate capable of clearly prevailing over the threat of Farage’s far right, who a month and a half ago inflicted a humiliating defeat across the country on the Labor Party and Starmer.
The prime minister has made it clear that he does not intend to resign from his position. He considers that the mandate he obtained two years ago, which ended fourteen years of conservative governments, is still legitimate.
Since then, however, its popularity has plummeted. In part, due to a series of errors, misdirections and indecisions that have frustrated and disappointed their team. Partly, due to the impatience of an electorate that did not see the change promised by Starmer in their lives and their pockets and gave themselves over with increasing fervor to the extreme right.
“I say to my party: this is our last chance to bring change. That is what voters have told me in the hundreds of doors I have knocked on these days. We must listen to them and do it well. There will not be a second chance,” Burnham warned in his early morning speech.
His team has already announced the candidate’s intention to speak personally with Starmer over the weekend (he will not take possession of his deputy record until Monday). He wants to ask for an orderly and agreed withdrawal, which avoids a civil war in the Labor Party.
If the Prime Minister remains stubborn in resisting, Burnham will have to gain the public support of eighty MPs to launch a primary process in which Starmer has already made it clear that he will compete, in which other candidates will probably participate, and which will last for several weeks.
The former mayor of Manchester will have no problem, if necessary, in collecting these signatures. Victory, or the prospect of victory, always has many suitors. And the members of the Labor parliamentary group are already beginning to reposition themselves in the face of the new political era that is approaching in the United Kingdom. If Burnham successfully completes his challenge, he will become the country’s seventh minister since the British voted ten years ago in favor of Brexit.
