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Andy Burnham and his allies set out a vision of Britain moving even further to the Left under his premiership today, hours after he was effectively anointed Labour leader without a fight. The former Manchester mayor last night won the backing of 322 Labour MPs to replace Sir Keir Starmer, in practice meaning no challenger can now get enough support to oppose him. And this morning one of his closest allies in the Cabinet signalled he could put up taxes or increase public borrowing to fund an increase in defence spending.

ANDY Burnham is all but nailed on to become Prime Minister in 11 days time after Labour MPs overwhelmingly backed him. Some 322 colleagues nominated him to replace Sir Keir Starmer on the opening day of nominations today. The Makerfield MP is the sole candidate running to be Labour leader after all his rival bids melted away. It is now virtually impossible for anyone else to get the 81 MPs required to launch a challenge and prolong the contest. Tonight Mr Burnham sought to firm up his party by apologising for Sir Keir’s stance on the Israel-Gaza war – as...

@opinion_black The circus has begun. You have little to no idea who this WEF puppet Andy Burnham is. A left wing tax and spend socialist who is a Manchurian candidate operating on behalf of the corporatists and oligarchs that control this country. A man sent to destroy what’s left of this once great country. A man who will surround himself with other puppets dedicated to that same ideal. The UK needs an election not a coronation. If that does not work then certainly a revolution.

The United Kingdom is set to see its seventh prime minister in the past ten years, and it appears that man will be Andy Burnham, a veteran Labour Party Westminster insider who has sought to cast himself as a “socialist” working-class hero. Andy Burnham will return to the House of Commons on Monday after having spent the past ten years outside of the London political bubble as Mayor of Greater Manchester. Previously serving as the MP for Leigh from 2001 until 2017, his return was orchestrated over the past year as it became clear that outgoing Prime Minister Sir Keir...

Andy Burnham is sworn in as the MP for Makerfield hours after Keir Starmer announces his resignation as Labour Party leader Burnham earlier said he would stand to replace the prime minister, with backing from former Health Secretary Wes Streeting Streeting - who quit Starmer's government last month - previously said he would contest any leadership race After being sworn in, Burnham was met with whoops and cheers as he had his picture taken with around 200 Labour MPs

Britain may — very likely — soon have a new government under Andy Burnham. Amid the swirl of senior Labour figures vying for a place at the top table, one name keeps coming up: Ed Miliband. The energy secretary, who led the Labour party himself between 2010 and 2015 — when he was rejected by voters at the ballot box — is regarded by many MPs, as well as by bookmakers, as the frontrunner to be Burnham’s chancellor. The two men are longstanding political allies and have been in regular contact in recent weeks, including one-to-one phone calls about policy...

Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Andy Burnham's decisive victory in the Makerfield by-election has raised the possibility that the Labour politician could challenge U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the party's leadership and become the country's new leader.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Friday he would not walk away, vowing ​to fight any challenge from his leading party rival Andy Burnham and potentially ushering in a new bout of political instability. Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, won ‌a decisive victory for Labour to claim a parliamentary seat in northwest England, and has signalled that he will use it to enter any contest to replace Starmer. The scale of his victory in Makerfield in northwest England prompted more Labour lawmakers to say Starmer, unpopular and under pressure from the populist Reform UK in surveys, should consider stepping...

Sir Keir Starmer has warned Andy Burnham against launching an immediate challenge to his leadership if he becomes an MP, urging him, and the party, to focus instead on the election for a new Greater Manchester mayor. If Burnham wins in Makerfield on Thursday he would have to resign as Manchester mayor, with a by-election to replace him expected by 6 August. Burnham is widely anticipated to challenge the prime minister for the leadership, if he is elected to Parliament. Speaking from the G7 summit, the prime minister said a leadership contest would be a "bad thing" for the country...

Reform UK has been put in a dangerous position ahead of the Makerfield parliamentary by-election by a rival right-wing party. In what is likely to be Britain's most important by-election in history, Restore Britain, led by Rupert Lowe, is splitting the vote. Lowe is a former Reform UK MP who was ejected from the party. Times Radio presenter Rod Liddle commented that Restore is dividing the electorate in "an incredibly stubborn manner". The by-election on June 18 was triggered when Labour MP Josh Simons stepped down specifically to allow Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to run for Parliament. If he...

In a handful of former mining towns and villages in north-west England, there is a lot of frustration with the state of the UK. It is common to hear people say "Britain is broken", "we are forgotten", and calls for "change". This is the Makerfield constituency, where locals are being heard louder than ever before in the most consequential by-election in decades. A constituency that made up 0.1% of voters at the last general election is not only picking a new MP on 18 June. Voters here are also potentially choosing the next prime minister. That is because Labour's candidate,...

Voters in perhaps the most consequential special election ever held in Britain are angry, and they really want someone to feel their pain. That’s the clear verdict from a special focus group by Public First for POLITICO of voters in Makerfield, the former mining area in northwest England whose June 18 vote could determine the next prime minister. Some in the group said Andy Burnham, the Labour candidate who is hot favorite to succeed party leader Keir Starmer as PM if he can get himself back into Parliament, might make a difference. But the overwhelming mood during the 90-minute conversation...

BREAKING: Another Makerfield by-election poll has been released 🔴 LAB - 45% ➡️ REF - 40% 🟣 RES - 8% 🟢 GRN - 3% 🔵 CON - 2% 🟠 LD - 1% Via More in Common, 515 sample, 28 May - 12 June

The UK is on a path towards the “poisonous” politics of the US under the current Labour leadership, Andy Burnham has said. Discourse is becoming more polarised and “communities don’t work together any more”, he said during a campaign speech. The Greater Manchester mayor, who hopes to return to Westminster in next week’s Makerfield by-election, and has made no secret of his Labour leadership ambitions, has been critical of Sir Keir Starmer’s direction. He asked the audience: “Does anyone here feel that we can just stay on the path that we’re on as a country? “It doesn’t feel doable, does...

With less than a week to go to the by-election, the mayor of Greater Manchester has a narrow lead over Reform UK, according to a new poll

If Andy Burnham wins Thursday's election in Makerfield, the seat he needs to challenge ​Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the country's leadership, it may have less to do with his own appeal than the feuding of two populist right-wing parties splitting their vote. The ‌election is shaping up to be one of the most consequential one-off contests in modern British political history. The 77,000 voters who live in Makerfield, in northern England, could decide the identity of the prime minister governing almost 70 million people. Opinion polls show Burnham, currently the governing Labour Party's mayor of Greater Manchester, could win...

Greater Manchester Mayor ​Andy Burnham is ‌considering holding a snap ​general election ​if he becomes ⁠British prime ​minister, the ​Sun newspaper reported on Saturday. He is ​also lining ​up British interior ‌minister ⁠Shabana Mahmood to be his chancellor, the ​newspaper ​reported, ⁠citing Labour insiders. Reuters ​could not ​immediately ⁠verify the report.

Tony Blair has accused Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting of putting Labour’s future at risk by abandoning the centre ground, warning that the party’s “almost infinite capacity for self-delusion” means it is likely to lose the next election. In a scathing 5,700-word attack on the prime minister and his would-be successors published on Tuesday night, Blair argued for the government to crack down on welfare spending, abandon restrictions on oil and gas and smooth relations with Donald Trump. His essay, a highly unusual intervention for a past Labour prime minister, is likely to draw a furious response from...

Sir Sadiq Khan has accused Sir Keir Starmer of failing to deliver on Labour’s election promises. The Mayor of London also said that the Prime Minister’s speech after Labour’s local elections disaster, in which he vowed to face up to the big challenges the country faces, was “not enough”. He also heaped praise on Andy Burnham, and refused to say whether or not he would want him to lead Labour into the next election should he win the Makerfield by-election next month.

Andy Burnham could lead Labour to victory against Reform in a general election, polling reveals. The survey, carried out by More in Common, found that Labour would get an eight-point boost with Mr Burnham at its helm if he succeeded in his attempt to become the next party leader. The “Burnham bounce” would secure Labour 30 per cent of votes, three points ahead of Nigel Farage’s party which has consistently led the opinion polls since the autumn of 2025. This week, Mr Burnham was selected as Labour’s candidate to fight the Makerfield by-election, where he is tipped to beat Robert...