Burnham wins big and has No 10 in his sights

Did you hear the one about the man dressed as an intergalactic bin, the fox and the would-be prime minister?

No, this isn’t a joke but rather the comical face of British politics in 2026.

At just after 3am this morning, Andy Burnham was flanked by Count Binface and an independent candidate dressed as a fox when news of his landslide victory was announced to the world.

The so-called King of the North didn’t just win Makerfield, he got more votes than all the other candidates combined.

He beat his nearest rival – Reform’s plumber candidate Robert Kenyon – by a whopping 9,000 votes.

Now Burnham seems certain to challenge for the Labour leadership for a third time – but unlike his previous failures in 2010 and 2015, he is now the red-hot favourite to win.

If that happens, he’ll become the UK’s seventh prime minister in 10 years.

In his victory speech, Burnham said Makerfield would never be a stepping stone for him but instead a touchstone.

Politics isn’t working

“Everyone knows that politics isn’t working,” he said. “Everyone can feel that the country isn’t where it should be. Tonight could just be a turning point.

“I will give everything I have got to make it so, to ensure the name Makerfield is forever synonymous with bringing about the change this country needs.”

And he had an emphatic message for the Labour Party that could be heard all the way to 10 Downing Street.

“I do say to my own party: this is a final chance to change,” he said. “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.”

Legendary polling expert Sir John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, said Burnham’s victory owed much to his personal brand after nine successful years as Greater Manchester mayor.

He wrote: “Last year in the Runcorn by-election, Labour’s vote fell by 14 points. Four months ago in Gorton & Denton, it collapsed by 25 points.

“In Makerfield itself, Labour were 20 points behind Reform in the local elections on May 7.

“Even at the best of times, support for the party of government nearly always falls in by-elections.

“Yet, in yesterday’s ballot, Burnham not only retained every bit of the 45 per cent share of the vote Labour won in the seat in 2024, but actually pushed his party’s share up by 10 points.

“With Labour stuck at just 19 per cent in the national polls, much as it has been ever since last autumn, there has been no evidence of any marked change in Labour’s popularity in the last few weeks to account for this turnaround.

“Some people will have voted tactically to keep Reform out, some will have been hoping to bring about the downfall of the prime minister, while others will simply have been persuaded by Burnham’s personal style and his record as Greater Manchester mayor.”

Burnham’s victory was the culmination of a slick, military-style operation that attracted an army of Labour campaigners to Makerfield to lend their support.

By contrast, Reform’s campaign appeared doomed the moment sexist social media posts from their candidate Robert Kenyon emerged.

Carol Vorderman, who had been the subject of one of Kenyon’s crude posts, shared a video on Instagram at 2.30am this morning saying she was staying up for the result of the Makerfield by-election.

However, the scale of Burnham’s challenge is underlined by the fact that Kenyon still secured 15,696 votes – 35 per cent of the total – despite the slew of negative stories.

The focus will now switch to the timing of Burnham’s leadership challenge and the forthcoming Greater Manchester by-election on July 30 to select his successor.

• Listen to Northern Spin’s profile of Andy Burnham here