Burnham wins by-election to set up leadership challenge

Updated / Friday, Labour mayor Andy Burnham cleared a path to be able to attempt to oust British Prime Minister Keir Starmer after winning a parliamentary seat in northern England in what could be the UK's most consequential local election in more than six decades. Mr Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor nicknamed the 'King of the North', won the contest in Makerfield in northwest England with 24,927 of the votes, while the candidate for Nigel Farage's Reform UK party came second with 15,696 votes. His victory means he will now be able to trigger, or at least take part in, a contest to replace Mr Starmer, whose popularity has plummeted. However, the key question is when and how Mr Burnham ‌will do it. "I do say ⁠to my own party, this is a final chance to change," Mr Burnham said in his victory speech. "There will be no second chance." He urged his party to act now, saying there would be no second chance. "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." Mr Burnham, a career politician who has expressed support for the nationalisation of key public services and criticised what he called four decades of failed neoliberal economics, has said he would seek to replace Mr Starmer and change politics. Polls suggest Mr ‌Burnham is Labour's most popular politician and would win a months-long leadership contest decided , while some party members hope Mr Starmer could ⁠be persuaded to hand over power to avoid a damaging contest. Two years after winning a landslide ‌national election, Mr Starmer, 63, is one of the least popular British prime ministers since polling ⁠records began ‌after scandals, policy U-turns, and accusations of indecision derailed the delivery of the change he once promised. About a quarter of his MPs have called for him to quit since his party suffered heavy losses in local elections last month, while senior ⁠colleagues, including the defence and health minister, resigned in recent weeks over his leadership. A defiant Mr Starmer said this ⁠week that he would stand in any leadership contest and issued a warning to his party about the potential "chaos" of a potentially bitter and divisive leadership election. Another of Mr Starmer's main rivals, former health minister Wes Streeting, said this week he would force a contest soon unless the prime minister announced when he would stand down.