{"id":22073,"date":"2026-06-19T13:10:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T13:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/starmer-vows-to-fight-as-burnhams-win-fuels-a-labour-leadership-showdown\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T13:10:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T13:10:31","slug":"starmer-vows-to-fight-as-burnhams-win-fuels-a-labour-leadership-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/starmer-vows-to-fight-as-burnhams-win-fuels-a-labour-leadership-showdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer vows to fight as Burnham’s win fuels a Labour leadership showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
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LONDON — Labour’s Andy Burnham, the current mayor of Greater Manchester, has won a special election for a seat in Parliament that puts him in a position to challenge embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer for leadership of the country.<\/p>\n

Burnham decisively won the seat of Makerfield in northwest England over Rob Kenyon of the anti-immigration party Reform UK.<\/p>\n

The victory announced early Friday cements the status of Burnham, a 56-year-old politician nicknamed the King of the North, as the top contender to replace Starmer as leader of the Labour Party and the country. <\/p>\n

Burnham won almost 55 per cent of the 45,510 votes cast for a field of more than a dozen candidates, over 9,000 more than runner-up Kenyon.<\/p>\n

Burnham’s victory speech left no doubt that he wants to lead the country, and not just be one of the more than 400 Labour lawmakers in the 650-seat House of Commons.<\/p>\n

“Everyone knows that politics isn’t working,” he said. “Everyone can feel that the country isn’t where it should be. Tonight could, just could, be the turning point.”<\/p>\n

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Starmer congratulated Burnham, writing on X that voters “chose Labour’s campaign of hope and optimism over division and hate.”<\/p>\n

But he insisted he would fight attempts to oust him.<\/p>\n

“Yes, I will run, I will stand,” if there is a Labour leadership contest, Starmer said. “I’ve said repeatedly I’m not going to walk away from that.”<\/p>\n

Burnham has led Manchester since 2017, overseeing rapid regeneration for the city where the Industrial Revolution was forged. <\/p>\n

He is pledging to repeat his signature brand of “Manchesterism” on a national scale.<\/p>\n

Burnham said he would work to ensure that “the name Makerfield is forever synonymous with bringing about the change this country needs.”<\/p>\n

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He said Labour had “a final chance to change” and win back voters’ trust.<\/p>\n

“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, dark politics of the kind we see in the US,” he said.<\/p>\n

Labour is in power but unpopular<\/h2>\n

Starmer’s popularity has cratered since he led the centre-left Labour Party to a landslide election victory in July 2024.<\/p>\n

He has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living, and been hamstrung by repeated missteps, including his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as the UK ambassador to the United States.<\/p>\n

Labour is losing liberal voters to the growing Green Party, and facing a rising Reform UK, which consistently leads in nationwide opinion polls. <\/p>\n

The Nigel Farage-led party has rapidly gained ground in post-industrial northern England areas like Makerfield, some 320 kilometres northwest of London.<\/p>\n

Burnham’s resounding victory gives Labour new hope of stopping the Reform tide. <\/p>\n

Farage acknowledged he was “disappointed, no question about it”, with the result of Thursday’s vote.<\/p>\n

A dismal performance by Labour in May’s local elections spurred scores of lawmakers to demand Starmer’s resignation. <\/p>\n

He has refused to budge, but senior colleagues are trying to force a change.<\/p>\n

Wes Streeting resigned as health secretary in May, saying that “where we need vision, we have a vacuum”.<\/p>\n

Streeting has said he will run in a leadership contest if there is one.<\/p>\n

Then Josh Simons, the Labour lawmaker for Makerfield, stepped down to trigger a special election and give Burnham the chance to return to Parliament.<\/p>\n

Britain’s parliamentary system allows governing parties to change leaders midterm, with the winner becoming prime minister without the need for a national election. <\/p>\n

Under Labour rules, a lawmaker can challenge the leader if they have backing from a fifth of the party’s House of Commons lawmakers — a number that stands at 81.<\/p>\n

The victorious Burnham will head to London to be sworn in as a lawmaker as soon as Monday. <\/p>\n

He’s likely to seek a meeting with Starmer to argue that the prime minister should exit gracefully and set a timetable for his departure.<\/p>\n

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said Burnham and Starmer would in the next few days have to “have a conversation about what comes next”.<\/p>\n

Labour lawmaker Louise Haigh, a Burnham ally, said Starmer should “do what’s best for both the country and the Labour Party” and “consider an orderly and managed transition”.<\/p>\n

“Andy won’t be doing anything rash or hasty,” she told Sky News. “I’m really hopeful the prime minister and Andy can come to an agreement.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Burnham’s victory piles pressure on Starmer to quit<\/h2>\n

Starmer has so far insisted he has no intention of leaving his post, saying he was elected on a “mandate for change” and would carry on with it.<\/p>\n

Starmer suggested that he could offer Burnham a Cabinet post, telling Sky News on Wednesday that “I want him to have a big role in government”.<\/p>\n

Allies of Burnham indicated that he wasn’t interested.<\/p>\n

Despite his stubborn determination, Starmer could be forced out if several members of the Cabinet tell him the game is up and quit, or threaten to quit, in protest.<\/p>\n

There could then be a leadership contest, or a coronation, depending on whether other potential candidates think Burnham has an unassailable lead.<\/p>\n

Rob Ford, professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said “the pressure on Starmer will be very hard to resist” now that Burnham is back in Parliament.<\/p>\n

Ford said defeating Reform UK in Makerfield strengthens Burnham’s claim to be Labour’s biggest asset.<\/p>\n

“The narrative he can bring is, ‘No one else could have won that seat. I won that. I bring something unique. I bring an ability to renew our appeal,'” Ford said.<\/p>\n

[[nid:737561]]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/sub><\/p>\n

Starmer vows to fight as Burnham’s win fuels a Labour leadership showdown<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON — Labour’s Andy Burnham, the current mayor of Greater Manchester, has won a special election for a seat in Parliament that puts him in a position to challenge embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer for leadership of the country. Burnham decisively won the seat of Makerfield in northwest England over Rob Kenyon of the anti-immigration…<\/p>\n

Read More “Starmer vows to fight as Burnham’s win fuels a Labour leadership showdown”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}