Andy Burnham’s route back to Parliament has become clearer, but a Makerfield by-election would pit him against a surging Reform UK challenge.
Andy Burnham’s possible return to Westminster has moved closer after Labour MP Josh Simons stood down in Makerfield and Number 10 indicated it would not try to stop the Greater Manchester mayor from seeking the seat, the BBC reported.
The opening comes at a volatile moment for Labour, with pressure mounting on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer after nearly a third of the party, including the health secretary and four ministers, called for him to resign. But Burnham’s immediate test may be less about internal Labour arithmetic than whether he can beat Reform UK in a constituency where the party has recently made sharp gains.
Reform came second to Labour in Makerfield at the general election two years ago, taking just under a third of the vote. In elections last week, Reform won all 11 wards in and around the constituency and secured about half the vote there. Nigel Farage has said his party “will throw absolutely everything at it.”
The political route for Burnham is clearer than it was earlier this year. Before the Gorton and Denton by-election, Starmer used his authority and Labour’s National Executive Committee to prevent Burnham from standing. This time, Downing Street has indicated it will not repeat that move, a decision that reflects both Burnham’s renewed opportunity and Starmer’s weakened position inside the party.
Simons’s decision is also striking because he is not from Burnham’s wing of Labour. The BBC described him as an ally of Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and a former head of Labour Together, the think tank associated with the party’s right and Starmer’s path to the leadership. That has allowed Burnham’s supporters to present the move as a possible unity moment rather than simply another factional challenge.
Labour Deputy Leader Lucy Powell, a close friend of Burnham, said she “fully supports” him as the Labour candidate in Makerfield and had it on “good authority” that there would be no effort to stop him running. She argued that Labour needed to end factionalism and bring together different traditions within the party.
That view is not universal. Luke Akehurst, a prominent figure on Labour’s right, warned that internal manoeuvring risked deep political instability and could push the country toward a general election within months. Another unnamed Labour figure quoted by the BBC described the behaviour of Simons and Burnham as disgraceful.
For now, Starmer is insisting he will not resign and has told allies he would fight any leadership contest if one is triggered. That leaves the Makerfield race carrying unusually high stakes: if Burnham wins, supporters will argue he has shown he can recover voters drifting toward Reform; if he loses, his route to the Labour leadership would be severely damaged.
The next focus is whether Burnham formally secures the Labour candidacy and how quickly the by-election becomes a direct test of Labour’s ability to hold off Reform in one of its own seats.
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