Burnham - who comfortably beat Reform UK's Robert Kenyon by more than 9,000 votes - tells the Labour Party it is the "final chance to change
Mayor Andy Burnham, called "the King in the North" by his supporters in Manchester, just got elected to a seat in Parliament from the constituency of Makerfield. This means he will become prime minister (probably) in a few weeks pending a Labour leadership challenge. And it also lessens the possibility that there will ever be a Prime Minister Nigel Farage.
The turnout in Makerfield was 58.75% on Thursday. That's up from 52.50% in the 2024 general election. Higher turnouts in by-elections are atypical.
This by-election was hotly contested but in the end it wasn't even close. Burnham got 54.81% of the vote while Robert Kenyon of Farage's Reform UK received 34.51%. Analysts described the result as seismic.
A big win for Burnham - we are in for a lively few days and weeks
Andy Burnham couldn’t have hoped for a better result than this. He’s won and won big time. Granted, this is a seat that has elected Labour MPs for yonks, but just a matter of weeks ago, at the local elections, Reform UK were dominant here. So he can make an argument that in the tussle of our time in politics — between the incumbent party of government, Labour and the insurgent party Reform UK, he is a proven winner. [ ... ] And how does the Labour Party respond to his win? Backbenchers, the cabinet? Is there a stepping up in calls for the prime minister to quit? We are in for a lively few days and weeks ahead.
I love watching constituency results being announced in UK elections. Here is how BBC viewers saw the announcement in Makerfield.
By-elections attract colorful fringe candidates. As the totals were being read out, Andy was in between a candidate known as Lord Binface and an independent animal rights activist named Rob Pownall who was wearing a fox costume.
Makerfield, with a population similar to that of Green Bay in Wisconsin, has likely changed the course of British political history.