London, June 20:
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.
Burnham won the seat of Makerfield in northwest England over Rob Kenyon of the anti-immigration party Reform UK.
The victory announced Friday cements the status of Burnham as the leading contender to replace Starmer as leader of the Labour Party and the country.
Burnham has pledged that “if people put their trust in me, I will change politics” a big promise for a politician who is just one of 650 lawmakers in the House of Commons.
He said he would take the fight for change “as high as I can possibly take it.”
Starmer’s popularity has cratered since he led the centre-left Labour Party to a landslide election victory in July 2024.