The morning after Andy Burnham secured a landslide byelection victory in Makerfield, returning him to Westminster after nine years as Manchester mayor, it is hard to avoid the large, red placards bearing his face.
But Burnham’s win was not just thanks to Labour loyalists. Instead, it appears that a coalition of voters from the left, centre and even the right united to back him at the ballot box.
Burnham achieved his victory with a majority of 9,231 votes over the Reform UK candidate, Robert Kenyon – bigger than that enjoyed by his predecessor. Labour won 55% of the vote to Reform’s 35%, while the hard-right party Restore Britain secured 7%. Turnout was 59%, six percentage points up on the general election, with 45,510 votes cast.
Both the Liberal Democrats and the Green party ran subdued campaigns, allowing Labour to absorb a broad range of voters, while the right wing vote was divided between Reform UK and Restore Britain.
“Two years ago the Liberal Democrat and Green candidates won 11% of the Makerfield vote,” veteran pollster Peter Kellner noted in his analysis of the byelection result. “Yesterday they won just one per cent, setting new records for vote-shedding while they helped to ensure that Burnham beat Kenyon.”
In Orrell waterpark, three friends – Mal, 64, Peta, 48, and Barb, 64 – said they were all Green supporters usually but backed Burnham on Thursday, who they believed had the best chance of defeating the “divisive” politics of the right.
Mal, a former social worker, said he had been angered by the immigration-focused campaigns of Reform UK and Restore Britain in Makerfield, a constituency whose population is 95% white British.
“It’s nothing to do with migrants – they’re the people treating us in hospital. Reform are coming in causing so many problems and that’s why we don’t want that,” he said.
Peta said the byelection had been “hugely” divisive “between family, neighbours, people you speak to in the street”, adding: “I don’t know if people realise how far right they’ve fallen.”
Barb said she hoped the area would be able to come back together after its polarising and high-profile time in the spotlight, noting that many Reform UK and Restore Britain activists had come from farther afield: “There will need to be work done to bring ordinary decent people back together again,” she said.
Some of Burnham’s borrowed supporters also appeared to come from the right, including voters who have backed Reform in the past.
In the 2024 general election, Joseph, 50, a heavy goods driver, voted for the Reform candidate, Robert Kenyon.
“I’m not a Labour fan but I like Burnham and I think this is bigger than just us here,” he said. “I voted for him this time, because at least for the next few years I think he’s the best chance we have.”
Ellen, 63, said that any fondness she and her peers had for Farage had waned over the past year, and she was eager to stop Reform from winning in her constituency.
“I don’t trust him [Farage] any more. I think he’s backwards, and the man who they chose to stand here, I think he’s an odd one,” she said. “I don’t like the stuff he said about women, and I get a bad sense from him. I’m not pro-Labour but if he [Burnham] was the other option I was happy to vote for him.
“I’m happy he won and I’m really happy that it’s over.”
Amber, 37, is one of only 308 people who voted for the Green candidate, Sarah Wakefield, but said she had considered backing Burnham instead.
“I live on a very pro-Burnham street, so I’ve been seeing a lot of red recently, I would have been shocked if he’d lost,” she said.
“I was tempted and I’m glad he won because I’d have felt awful if Reform had got in. I know other people who usually vote Green who backed him and I understand it. I think it was something a lot of people who don’t like Labour did.”
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