'COMMETH THE MAN' Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield by-election
Andy Burnham has beaten his main rival Rob Kenyon to win the seat in Makerfield.
It’s been 5 weeks of campaigning, door knocking, television interviews and debate but Andy Burnham has fought all of that off to become the newly elected MP for Makerfield.
Andy Burnham will return to Westminster after 9 years of being the Mayor of Greater Manchester and it is widely expected that he will enter a leadership race to become the next Labour Leader and Prime Minister.
What was once predicted to be a close battle, ended in a seismic victory for Labour, claiming just under 55% of the overall vote share.
It was a tough night for Reform, who expected to be polling much closer to Labour claimed 35% of the vote share.
Andy Burnham will use this as an argument to say that people think he is the right person to take the fight to Reform nationally over Keir Starmer.
Although not everyone is convinced over his election victory.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning, Richard Tice said that tactical voting has taken place and people have voted for Labour to try and get Starmer out and he claimed that reform voters said they’d vote Labour to make sure this happens.
The Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also spoken out this morning saying that “voters chose Labour’s campaign of hope and optimism over division and hate”.
There has got to be something in the back of Keir Starmer’s mind that his job could be at risk - because it very well could be.
Andy Burnham is a big target and popular among Labour members to be the next Prime Minister and it is being retorted that he already has the required 81 MPs to launch that campaign.
In the early hours of the morning, Andy Burnham gave his victory speech at the count where he said that “this could be the turning point for change”.
He added that “I do say to my own party: this is a final chance to change.
“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.”
These aren’t typical lines at a by-election.
Andy Burnham focused this speech on change but on a bigger scale, and spoke out not only to the people of Makerfield, but his own MPs. It is clear Andy Burnham is ready to take the bigger fight on a bigger scale.
Only time will tell how this will go, especially with a mayoral election for Greater Manchester now lurking on the horizon.
But one thing is for sure, Keir Starmer will need to be ready to take the fight against his own party.