The leadership campaign of Britain's Andy Burnham will now finally burst into the open — and Keir Starmer has a chilly reception awaiting the new MP
By DAN BLOOMin ASHTON-IN-MAKERFIELD, England
Andy Burnham makes a speech to supporters after winning the Makerfield by-election on June 19, 2026. | Ryan Jenkinson/Getty Images
Andy Burnham spent the last month running a hopey-changey campaign from a small town social club to become an MP. His allies have been plotting frenetically behind the scenes to launch the campaign for No. 10 that now begins in Westminster.
The former veteran of the Westminster machine — who left for the North in the 2010s — will return to work in London by Monday as the MP for the constituency of Makerfield, in northwest England. The sitting mayor of Greater Manchester won 55 percent of the vote in the parliamentary seat to 35 percent for Nigel Farage’s right-wing party Reform UK. That makes him eligible to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer — putting the battle for Britain’s leadership in the hands of just a few hundred thousand Labour and trade union members.
