UK's Starmer says he will fight any challenge after Burnham by-election win

(Sharecast News) - UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's leadership was hanging by a thread on Friday after Greater Manchester mayor and potential challenger Andy Burnham convincingly won the Makerfield by-election to make a return to parliament. Burnham defeated the extreme right-wing Reform and Restore parties amid fears the seat would lurch towards anti-immigrant candidates. The former cabinet minister won 55% of the vote and almost doubled the majority of his predecessor, Josh Simons.

Such a convincing win led to speculation that he could replace Starmer quickly, although Burnham's aides were briefing that allies within government should avoid mass resignations to avoid causing more chaos within Whitehall.

Starmer has consistently said he would fight any challenge to his premiership. Any rival must first garner the support of 81 MPs.

"If there is a contest, just to be clear with you, then, yes, I will run," he told reportes at an even in London.

Burnham warned that Labour was facing its "last chance" to change Britain amid a rise in far-right rhetoric from Reform, led by Nigel Farage, which had led to large gains at the recent local government elections driven by dissatisfaction with the current Labour government.

"The word Makerfield in the future must be known as a byword for the change that came to British politics. This is the moment," Burnham said after the count.

"We've been on a path for 40 years that simply hasn't worked for people and places in this part of the world, and this now is the change moment."

"We have an opportunity to turn the tide, to make the country feel like it's working again, to make people see that politics can make a positive difference, to make people feel hope again."

Farage, who has been embroiled in a scandal involving a £5m "gift" from Thai-British cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne for which he has given differing answers, had expected his party to run a closer race.

Fearing a split of the right wing vote due to Restore - led by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe - running on an extreme agenda calling for mass deportations and using openly racist rhetoric, Farage started to ape the message in order to shore up support among the Makerfield locals.

Reform's Robert Kenyon polled 35.5% of the vote, 2.7 percentage points better than his return at the 2024 general election. Restore came away with 7%, disproving any suggestions from Farage that his party alone could have overtaken Burnham.

Kenyon's cause was also damaged after misogynistic social media posts were discovered.

The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Greens all lost their deposits as Labour's well run campaign convinced the electorate to vote tactically.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com