Andy Burnham won a thumping victory in the Makerfield byelectionLONDON: Former mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham won a thumping victory in the Makerfield byelection on Thursday night, paving the way for a leadership challenge in Labour and putting him much closer to the keys to No. 10.Burnham, who stood for Labour, got 55% of the vote with 24,927 votes, winning 9,231 votes more than Reform UK’s Rob Kenyon who won 35% of the vote.Burnham’s return to Westminster means he can now challenge Starmer as leader of the Labour party — and become PM — though no formal challenge has been issued yet.Cabinet ministers are understood to be trying to persuade Starmer to step down and allow an orderly transition for his successor without a protracted leadership contest. One hundred Labour MPs have publicly called for Keir Starmer to resign or announce a timetable for his departure.But Starmer remained defiant on Friday. “There isn’t a leadership contest at the moment. I don’t think that’s a good thing for the country to plunge us into chaos…” he said, adding Labour should instead focus on winning the Manchester mayoral contest.” If there is a leadership contest, yes I will run,” he said.Sir Keir has been “crystal clear for some time now” that he intends to fight any challenge to his leadership, No. 10 told TOI on Friday.As the results were read out, Burnham was stood between a man dressed as a fox and Count Binface wearing a bin on his head — a long-standing tradition of joke candidates standing in British elections.In his victory speech, Burnham said Labour’s win in Makerfield “could be the turning point”, telling the Labour party that “this is a final chance to change”. “There won’t be a second chance,” he said.The Conservatives had something to celebrate, too, as they seized South Aberdeen from SNP in another byelection on Thursday winning the seat with an increased majority of 6,050 — the party’s first byelection victory in Scotland in 53 years. The Conservatives campaigned heavily on support for North Sea oil and gas drilling, which is a hot issue in Aberdeen.