‘King of the North’ Andy Burnham sets up UK leadership challenge; PM Keir Starmer says he’ll fight

Friday, 19 June 2026

Labour’s Andy Burnham, the current mayor of Greater Manchester, has won a special election for a seat in Parliament that puts him in a position to challenge embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he will fight attempts by rival Andy Burnham to oust him from office.

Starmer says he will not “walk away” and will run in a leadership contest if one is triggered.

Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has won a seat in Parliament in a special election and is looking to replace Starmer as leader of the Labour Party and the country.

Burnham decisively won the seat of Makerfield in northwest England over Rob Kenyon of the anti-immigration party Reform UK.

Britain's Labour party's Andy Burnham leaves with his wife Marie-France Van Heel and their daughter Rosie after winning the Makerfield by-election, paving the way for a leadership challenge against Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

The victory announced early Friday (local time) cements the status of Burnham, a 56-year-old politician nicknamed the King of the North, as the top contender to replace Starmer as leader of the Labour Party and the country. Burnham won almost 55% of the 45,510 votes cast for a field of more than a dozen candidates, over 9,000 more than runner-up Kenyon.

Burnham’s victory speech left no doubt that he wants to lead the country, and not just be one of the more than 400 Labour lawmakers in the 650-seat House of Commons.

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

Starmer congratulated Burnham. “Voters chose Labour’s campaign of hope and optimism over division and hate,” the prime minister wrote on X.

Burnham has led Manchester since 2017, overseeing rapid regeneration for the city where the Industrial Revolution was forged. He is pledging to repeat his signature brand of “Manchesterism” on a national scale.

Burnham said he would work to ensure that “the name Makerfield is forever synonymous with bringing about the change this country needs.”

Labour party's Andy Burnham speaks after winning the Makerfield by-election.

He said Labour had “a final chance to change' and win back voters' trust.

“But it is a chance now, from this result tonight, to build a new politics based on unity and hope, turning away from the path that takes us to a divided, dark politics of the kind we see in the United States,” he said.