In the end he was miles ahead. Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, is now Member of Parliament for Makerfield in what had been billed as the most consequential UK byelection of all time.
Burnham is a long stalwart of British Labour politics. A former cabinet minister and Blairite, he withdrew from the national stage 10 years ago, disillusioned and defeated in his campaign for the Labour leadership. Since then, he has remade himself as a local leader — taking on a new mayoralty, placing himself at the center of debates about the UK’s unbalanced regions, and earning himself the Game of Thrones-esque moniker “King of the North.” This political evolution has not come without consequences for the Labour establishment. Burnham gradually became a clear and present danger to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who consistently spiked his attempts to return to Westminster and had his people brief against him.
There is no love lost between the men. But the Labour Party’s catastrophic defeat in last month’s local elections meant that Starmer’s ability to stave off Burnham suddenly ran out of road. When a local MP fell on his sword to create a byelection, Burnham’s candidacy could no longer be denied.
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