Burnham, a former government minister who has been Greater Manchester mayor since 2017, ensured his return to parliament by easily beating the hard-right Reform UK party's candidate in the Makerfield constituency in northwest England.The 56-year-old longtime figure in centre-left Labour has indicated he will challenge Starmer for the party's leadership, and to be prime minister, and needed to win the high-stakes vote to be in a position to trigger such a contest.If Starmer does leave office this year, then Britain will get its seventh prime minister in 10 years."I do say to my own party, this is a final chance to change," Burnham said in his acceptance speech after securing nearly 55 percent of the vote, beating Reform's Robert Kenyon by more than 9,000 ballots."This is what people said directly to me on the hundreds of doorsteps that I stood on. We must hear it, we must act upon it, and we must get it right. There will be no second chance."Burnham added: "But it is a chance now, from this result tonight".Starmer, in office since July 2024, has been clinging to power since Labour suffered a drubbing in polls in England, Scotland and Wales last month.'King of the North'
Some 77,000 people were eligible to cast ballots © Oli SCARFF / AFP
