The veteran Labour politician won a crucial by-election, securing a parliamentary seat and clearing the path for a widely expected leadership bid.
Veteran UK Labour politician Andy Burnham emphatically won a crunch by-election on Friday, securing a parliamentary seat and clearing the way for a widely expected leadership challenge against beleaguered Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
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.
