Andy Burnham wins Makerfield byelection, eyes Starmer challenge
Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester mayor, won the Makerfield by-election for Labour with 54.8% of the vote to Reform UK's 34.5% and Restore Britain's 6.8%. The win returns Burnham to Parliament after nine years out of Westminster and amounts to roughly a 20-point margin, a majority of about 9,000 votes over Reform. Burnham called the outcome Labour's 'final chance to change' and immediately signalled he will use his new Commons seat as a platform to challenge Labour leader Keir Starmer. The victory blocks a high-profile Reform breakthrough and gives Burnham a national base from which to press a more left-leaning alternative to Starmer ahead of the next general election.
Ah, Andy Burnham has won the by-election in Manchester, beating Reform with some ease after all. That puts him in the position he wanted to be to challenge and replace Starmer. www.bbc.com/news/live/c3...
Gregg Levine33Less excited about Burnham than I am to see Labour outpoll Reform and Restore combined.
David Zoltan (he/they)14That's still nearly 19,000 votes for the far-right parties. Not exactly comforting.
JAM9John Oliver got me all caring about that election, so this is good.
donkeyfarrier.bsky.social6My home town. Thank goodness.
azrebb4Is this where we chant "eat shit reform"?
lynn0908.bsky.social4Just like the US, it’s still scary to see how many are voting for the psycho right party.
Michael Carthew2Thank you for calling it a by-election.
Blackbird, fly away 🏳️⚧️ 🌹 🌈 🌻 🏳️🌈2My experience of British politics is quite limited, so apologies if I've got anything wrong, but it's kinda funny to me that the color of the barely-tolerable party is red while the color of the lunatic right wing fringe is blue. On this side of the pond it's vice versa.
NEW: ANDY BURNHAM RETURNS TO PARLIAMENT AND STORMS BY ELECTION WINS 24K VOTES 9000 MAJORITY OVER REFORM HUGE WIN.
Will14Sounds like Farage should be preparing his resignation letter.
📎QueenBummie📎stupendous remainer📎14Putting it mildly, thank goodness
HumeFan11Reform/Restore might have had a split vote problem but AB got more votes than both of them combined
Chez Owen9For me, the only win is Reform's defeat, which was significant. However Andy ain't as strong as Starmer. Imagine Burnham opposing Trump, Musk, Reform, Putin, IT giants, RW media, social media...the list goes on. I can't. I genuinely hope Sir Keir manages to see out his tenancy, for the next 3 years.
denismacshane.bsky.social6Combined isolationist anti Europe vote for Reform, Restore and Tories was 41.46% compared to 54.82 for Labour with lifelong anti-isolationist pro-EU Burnham. Starmer red lines repudiated
Michaela5THANK YOU FOR THE ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER :)
Marlowe_UK5Maybe journalists like you could stop treating Farage like the “soon to be appointed PM” and accept the majority of us little people reject his obvious and persistent racism Lewis?
It’s a measure of how “out of touch” our national media (and political analysts more generally) have become with those they claim both to understand and to speak for that the power of Burnham’s progressive engine was so hopelessly underestimated. A bit of Northern correction today is hugely welcome.
Stuart Hemingway49231 majority is a slap in the face for Farage(who) and his Reform Party. If he had won Farage would be showing his face once again but such a loss is going to put him back in hiding✊
plod1.bsky.social2its more a vote to keep reform out rather than pro burnham’ would be funny if he loses leadership
So after spending almost the entire campaign talking about Rupert Lowe and whether or not he would "gift" Makerfield to Labour, most of the British press completely missed the actual story of a massive Andy Burnham win
TheBossRoss 🧶20I think voters have again better understood what's at stake. The Green/LibDem losses suggest they rallied behind Burnham to stop the far-right. A curious picture though, in the end. Two camps facing each other, no moderate conservatism, just centre-left against the far-right now, w/ Tories in ICU.
Shadow Home Secretary17As someone who works in Makerfield and lives next door, it's still worrying that 40% of the electorate voted for racist, misogynistic conmen. It's like the place has learned absolutely nothing from their Brexit vote. Conned then and still only too willing to be conned now. I despair of these people.
Just goes to show even when all the UK political media focus on a single constituency they aren't very good at understanding what's going on
Alistair Wilson (Big Al Wilson)11If Burnham resists the media’s attempts to force a general election then we can see the end of Reform. Farage will not have the enthusiasm for a long grind to 2029 with increasing scrutiny of his racism and bigotry. He will vanish in to the right wing speaking/ conference space for ego and wealth.
Sarah Calvert 🇬🇧🇮🇹🇪🇺9That's nice to wake up to.
willythepeople.bsky.social7The 'Fair & Balanced' British Press should now consider returning to reporting upon events, rather than trying to manufacture them. But they won't.
Geoff B7But not surprising . Does anybody believe what they read in the newspapers or hear from the BBC these days?
Sixes All The Way6Looks like tactical voting on behalf of LD & Green supporters was very much the order of the day & it has kept one more wingnut out of the action.
pete-w.bsky.social5A resounding victory for Burnham! I believe, deep down, that most people see Farage, Reform and Restore for what they are; nasty, racist and toxic. They bring nothing positive to any political debate, just blame, hate and division. Also nice to see Kemi Badenoch’s Conservative Party doing so well! 😂
Gordon Burrows5So 34% of the Electorate in Makerfield support Racism and Mysogony, FFS what is hoing on in this country #NeverevervoteReform
esmeraldastrongarm.bsky.social4Look at that Green and Lib Dem tactical vote. They’re a minority but it’s nearly all of them.
Sal4Seems like a fair bit of tactical voting from the greens, lib dems and tories to help defeat the far right. Good victory I guess. Not entirely sure how having a guy who speaks in a northern accent solves any of the problems we face so let's see. We are the most ludicrous of countries
GhostoftheCoalHewer4"Most of the British press" get their talking points dictated to them by MONEY. And their "analysis" comes from exactly the same place. If you want to understand what you're reading about and why, follow the money. The gravity of big inequality bends light out of shape.
Good to see all the astroturfed racist fascist nonsense (particularly on X) didn’t influence normal British voters. This is a big win for Labour. Now they need to change their policy and messaging.
Jim Thomas3The Con candidate lost their deposit. That would be a story once.
Brian Damage2Clearly Starmer's government is very popular in Makerfield.
Aside from the specific circumstances of Makerfield and Andy Burnham’s personal profile, a pattern is emerging in recent by-elections… Caerphilly, Gorton and Denton, Makerfield… the tactical vote to keep Reform ‘out’ is being mobilised with significant impact.
Marty1981 (uk)21Reform got a stonking tonight and they have no excuses. Ya love to see it. Britsin rejects fascists
Linda8Just hope this continues with the mayoral bi election in Greater Manchester.
Zoe Samuel8I would vote for a rotten potato to keep them out.
Renj8Yet we are constantly told a reform government is inevitable. If they can't win by-elections against a government this unpopular then how can they win a GE.
tomreed81.bsky.social2Looking forward to the calls for Nigel to step down as leader of Reform UK Ltd... @paulbrand.bsky.social Remind me what the steps required for that are?
Beach Boy2We fought them on the beaches … so we can probably manage to organise a little tactical voting against them.
This is significant – and while the Makerfield byelection is unusual because it has such national significance, this chart indicates again that the anti-Reform bloc will vote tactically to keep them out. Source: www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
Alex von Tunzelmann52This interests me because the old cliché is that politics on the left fractures easily (The Life of Brian’s People’s Front of Judaea vs the Judaean People’s Front). In fact in all three of those byelections we’ve seen voters band together to resist Reform, whether that means Plaid, Greens or Labour.
James O'Flynn6When it comes down to it, we're actually quite French in our slightly annoyed determination that if we really have to then when it comes to it we'll just bite our damned lip and do whatever it is we must to keep the bloody Fascists out.
Belinda Weaver4'Reform' is such a misnomer for Farage's band of racists, Little Englanders, opportunists, numbskulls and right wing scumbags. 'Reform' is meant to signify a change for the better. 'Racist Ruin' more apt, I'd say. Glad they got punted.
Rupert Stubbs2Are coalitions against Reform a good recipe for electing a government under FPTP? Works tactically in by-elections, but feels as if you’d end up with an even more fragmented national with no coherent majority party - resulting in weird and unstable pacts…
🚨 Andy Burnham won 55% of the vote - that's 9,000 more votes than Reform UK's Robert Kenyon.
Stuart Hemingway6Add Reform and Restore together and Burnham was still the winner. Hopefully a sign of things to come. These must win by-elections for ReformUK are not working out as the media would have us believe.
Graham Simpson5Friends and colleagues of Starmer should pay him a visit, the last thing the party and the country needs is a divisive contest.
voiceofloulou.bsky.social2Pleased about this, but he should now shut up and support Keir.
Paul Stenton2Tactical Veto Smashes Farage and stops our disUnited Kingdoms being ReFuk'd. Hope not hate wins the day, thanks to the greens and Libdems lending their vote. Left/right decisive win.
ANDY BURNHAM WITH 20% POINT VICTORY THE KING OF THE NORTH HAS DONE IT
DHinrio22Of greatest significance is that the Reform + Restore vote is still significantly less than Labour's.
Glonzo In Exile 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇨🇦🇬🇱10Handily beating a binface, a fox, and some others
WSJ AI-Powered Office Fish Vending Machine4Odds Starmer resigns as leader tomorrow? Because realistically it’s over the moment the sun rises
rot economy critic2Looking forward to everyone pretending Labour is somehow better now and that lasting until people notice everything is the fucking same.
Shashank S.2Looks like the 2024 Lib Dem vote all went for Burnham tactically?
