Andy Burnham has won the Makerfield by-election, paving the way for the Greater Manchester Mayor to launch a leadership challenge against Sir Keir Starmer.
Labour secured a 9,231 majority and a 54.8 per cent share of the vote
Burnham increased his party’s share of the vote with the help of tactical voting from Lib Dem’s ,Greens and very possibly Tories too as voters turned out to prevent a Reform Victory
In his victory speech the now former Mayor of Greater Manchester said;
People here have voted for change, they have voted for more power for the North and everywhere forgotten by Westminster, they have voted for hope.’
He added:
‘Everyone can feel that the country isn’t where it should be. Tonight could, just could, be the turning point.’ and insisted Makerfield will ‘never be a stepping stone to me, but instead will be my touchstone’.
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.
“But it is a chance now, from this result tonight, to build a new politics based on unity and hope, turning away from the path that takes us to a divided, politics of the kind we’ve seen in the US.
“We must now take this path and put this country back on the right path, and bring people back together and get things working properly again.”
Accordng to The New Statesman Burnham has the nominations required to trigger a Labour leadership contest and intends to present the list to Keir Starmer to urge him to step down without a contest.
