By DAVID WILCOCK, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 13:58 BST, 19 May 2026 | Updated: 16:34 BST, 19 May 2026
Self-styled 'King of the North' Andy Burnham will take on Reform's local plumber in the Makerfield by-election after being chosen as Labour's candidate from a shortlist of one.It is understood that the Greater Manchester mayor was the only person considered for selection by Labour's ruling National Executive Committee, which bypassed a vote by the local party this morning.Mr Burnham, a Labour MP for 16 years and a minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, said people in Makerfield 'feel Westminster isn't working for them' and 'I am standing to change that' after he was selected.He will face Reform candidate Robert Kenyon, a pipesman and army reservist who previously worked as a specialist technician for the NHS in Lancashire.Mr Kenyon was the Reform candidate in the 2024 general election, where he lost by 5,399 votes, but he won a seat on Wigan Council earlier this month as the party swept the area in local elections.In a video released by the party he warned that Mr Burnham would use the constituency as a 'stepping stone' in his career, with the mayor widely expected to challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership.Last night Mr Burnham put himself forward as the candidate to 'change Labour', using a cheesy campaign video to call for a 'new path for Britain'.In it he blamed Thatcher for Britain's problems today as he tried to get his by-election bid going with a 'vibes' video. Andy Burnham will be Labour's candidate in the Makerfield by-election, the party has announced, after he topped a shortlist of one He will face Reform candidate Robert Kenyon, a local plumber and army reservist who previously worked as a specialist technician for the NHS in Lancashire.Nearly 36 years after she left No10, the Manchester mayor said the Tory doyenne was responsible for 'a lot' of the issues confronting the country.The claim came as Mr Burnham struggles to explain what he would do if he succeeds in getting into the Commons and ousting Keir Starmer.The former minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown has already U-turned by insisting he is not proposing rejoining the EU, or ripping up the Government's fiscal rules - something that had alarmed markets.Critics have also accused him of watering down his commitment to a proportional representation - PR - voting system.Instead Mr Burnham has suggested he would like MPs to be elected using the supplementary vote method, and kicked the issue down the road by admitting it would need to be in a manifesto first.Mr Kenyon stood in 2024 on a manifesto that boasted he had 'done many a hard day's work in my life', adding: 'I know struggle from first-hand experience growing up in a single parent household on free school dinners.'At the time he told the Manchester Evening News he was raised in a Labour-voting family and that some of Reform's policies were 'quite left-wing'.Last week he posted a picture on Instagram of himself in a pub with a pint, saying: 'You'll not see Burnham in Wetherspoons on a Friday night in Wigan.'In February, Labour were embarrassed in the Gorton and Denton by-election when Green Party plumber Hannah Spencer won a previously safe seat in Greater Manchester.
