United Kingdom: why the Starmer government is hanging by a thread
If he is elected to Parliament, Andy Burnham will challenge the Prime Minister within the Labour Party. As Mayor of Manchester, he is leading in the polls with 40 per cent of the vote, but he must defeat Reform
Seventy thousand people will today determine the political future of the UK’s 70 million inhabitants. The by-election in Makerfield, near Manchester, is in fact of significance that extends far beyond the north of England. If Andy Burnham, the Labour candidate, is elected as an MP, he will stand for the leadership of the party and the country, challenging Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Burnham, nicknamed ‘the King of the North’ due to the success he has enjoyed and the popularity he has gained during his ten years as mayor of Manchester, must first be elected as an MP before he can become leader. His return to Westminster after years away was facilitated by his ally Josh Simons, who was elected as the MP for Makerfield in the 2024 general election and stepped aside to allow Burnham to get back on track at national level.
The mayor of Manchester has made no secret of his ambition to radically transform the Labour Party by shifting it to the left and revitalising it following the current government’s ‘paralysis’. Starmer’s position – who, according to all the polls, already held the dubious honour of being the most unpopular Prime Minister in history – has become even more precarious in recent weeks following the disastrous results of the local elections in May and the recent resignations of Defence Secretary John Healey and Health Secretary Wes Streeting. The latter announced yesterday that he will stand for the party leadership, possibly as early as next week, as a representative of the party’s moderate wing against Burnham.
Labour ministers and MPs have been campaigning in Makerfield in recent weeks, with a paradoxical call to vote Labour even though it could spell the end of the Starmer government. The Prime Minister is trying at all costs to avoid a fratricidal conflict which, he said, “would be bad for the country”: for this reason, Starmer pointed out that Burnham’s first duty, if elected, will be to support Labour in the campaign to elect the new mayor of Manchester. The Prime Minister has also offered Burnham an “important post” in the Government should he be elected as an MP.
The mayor of Manchester, who was born and raised in the area, is very popular and regarded as ‘one of our own’ by the people of Makerfield, despite the numerous ministerial posts he has held in the past. A Labour victory, however, cannot be taken for granted, as Reform UK – the anti-immigration party founded by Nigel Farage – won over 50 per cent of the vote in the recent local elections in a constituency that had been a Labour stronghold for over forty years.
