Andy Burnham said Labour had a “final chance to change” after winning the Makerfield by-election by 9,231 votes, marking his return to Westminster and paving the way for a showdown with Sir Keir Starmer.
The Greater Manchester mayor won more than half of all votes cast in the Makerfield by-election, comfortably beating the combined total for second and third place parties Reform UK and Restore Britain.
Reform candidate Rob Kenyon won 34.5% of the vote, while Restore Britain’s Rebecca Shepherd won 6.8%, which together come to 41.3%.
Conservative candidate Michael Winstanley won 2.2% of the vote in Makerfield – the Tories’ second lowest share of the vote at a Westminster by-election since the Second World War.
The turnout in Makerfield was 58.7%, the highest for a parliamentary by-election in nearly seven years.
Burnham said he wanted to ensure Makerfield was synonymous with “bringing about the change this country needs, bringing back something we’ve lost – hope – hope for the future.
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