Burnham calls for ‘new path for Britain’ as Starmer vows to fight any leadership challenge – as it happened

That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, and the UK politics live blog today. Thanks for following along.

Here is a round-up of the day’s headlines:

• Allies of Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting will ask cabinet ministers, friends and Labour grandees to persuade Keir Starmer over the weekend not to fight a leadership challenge. Burnham, who won a compelling majority in the Makerfield byelection overnight, is expected to travel to London on Monday to meet MPs in the expectation of becoming prime minister within weeks.

• But Keir Starmer has insisted he will stand in a Labour leadership contest, should one be triggered after Andy Burnham returned to Westminster following his victory in the Makerfield byelection. The prime minister is under pressure to hand over power to Burnham, who defied national trends to increase Labour’s share of the vote in a seat where Nigel Farage’s Reform UK made sweeping gains in last month’s local elections.

• There is no vacancy in No 10, Downing Street said as it refused to be drawn on whether any ministerial resignations should be expected on Friday. Asked whether there was a vacancy for the prime minister’s job, his official spokesman said: “No, I think the prime minister’s been very clear this morning.”

• Starmer also claimed that the Makerfield result showed that the tide was turning against Reform UK. He said: “I think it’s further evidence, actually, if you look at it in the context of other byelections, that the tide is turning on Reform, that they can’t now win byelections. They’ve reached probably the peak of their support, it is going down.”

• Burnham said that his byelection win was the “last chance” to change the country, and a chance “to lay out a new path for Britain”. He said: “It is our last chance to change, but we’re going to take it, aren’t we? We are going to take that opportunity and we are going to lay out a new path for Britain. The word Makerfield in the future must be known as a byword for the change that came to British politics. This is the moment.”

• Burnham’s victory shows that the new MP for Makerfield has a mandate to “take on [Nigel] Farage”, according to the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). The FBU’s general-secretary Steve Wright said the result was a win for the Labour movement, “which staged a mass ground campaign in Markerfield involving trade unions like the FBU”.

• Labour is “obsessed” with internal party “drama” Kemi Badenoch said, as she challenged Starmer and his ministers to instead focus on issues such as energy and national security. The Conservative leader also said her party’s dramatic by-election win in Aberdeen South “sent a message” in favour of more drilling in the North Sea – and she called for the controversial Jackdaw and Rosebank developments to be given the go-ahead.

• Micheál Martin, the taoiseach (Irish PM) has congratulated Andy Burnham on his byelection victory, RTE’s Tony Connolly reports. Martin said: “I know Andy, I’ve met him on a number of occasions. He has taken a particular interest in Ireland, and he has come to see us on a number of occasions, particularly on the economy and in respect of his role as a mayor in Manchester.”

• Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has said he is “disappointed” about the Makerfield byelection results – and he has urged some of his supporters who defected to Restore Britain to “think again”. In a video statement about the result, he said: “What really happened here was, it was vote [Andy] Burnham, get [Keir] Starmer out which, of course, was our campaign message leading up to the locals on May 7, so we were slightly hoisted with our own petard.”

• Labour will announce its candidate for the Greater Manchester mayoral byelection on 26 June. Under a timetable released by the party, applications for selection opened at 5pm on Friday and will close at 5pm on Sunday.

• The SNP will “consider the implications” of its defeat in the Aberdeen South by-election, leader John Swinney has said, as he admitted the Tories seized the seat from his party after capturing “understandable anger” in the area over the future of the oil and has industry. The Tories fought the by-election as a referendum on the sector – with an senior SNP source suggesting voters do not understand the party’s energy policy or view it as “weak”.

There was plenty of the hopey, changey stuff from Andy Burnham at his victory rally on the morning after the night before – but it ended with the new MP for Makerfield doing a runner. “Are you going to become the new prime minister?” shouted Sky’s political editor, Beth Rigby, at the retreating Burnham. “Keir Starmer says he is not going to give way – what’s your message for Keir Starmer?”

Hemmed in by cameras, chairs, tables, and a whole load of the giggling supporters who had been assembled around him on the turf at Ashton Town FC’s grounds, Burnham picked up the pace.

He skipped nimbly past the temporary toilets and weaved through the photographers and the beer garden benches, keeping his gaze firmly away from the chasing TV cameras all the while. It turned into a pretty urgent trot that might even be described as a jog. With Burnham’s vanishing act began what has every appearance of being a strange sort of interregnum in British politics, as authority drifted from one man to the next, after a challenge made in deed, if not in words.

An hour or so later, Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary, who has been managing Burnham’s campaign in Makerfield, laid out in crystal-clear terms what her candidate had been shy of saying directly.

“I hope the prime minister takes the weekend to really reflect on the result here,” said Haigh. “Listen to soundings from the cabinet and from the PLP [parliamentary Labour party], as all the evidence suggests that a contest would be brutal, it would be unpleasant and it would be very unlikely the PM would win.”

Did Burnham have a leadership campaign ready to go if Starmer refuses to move? Her answer was straightforward: “Yes”.

Andy Burnham’s resounding win in the Makerfield byelection has set the stage for a leadership battle with Keir Starmer.

The outgoing mayor of Greater Manchester received more votes than Reform and Restore combined, and the nature of the victory has prompted speculation he could replace Starmer as prime minister within weeks, if not days.

Annie Kelly speaks to political correspondent Alexandra Topping…

A former health minister who resigned alongside Wes Streeting has called on the cabinet to urge the prime minister to stand down following the Makerfield byelection.

Zubir Ahmed, MP for Glasgow South West, told Sky News that cabinet ministers had a responsibility to be “as honest and explicit to the prime minister, to his face, as they are privately”.

He said:

I haven’t been in touch with any cabinet ministers myself in the last few days, but that is ultimately one of the responsibilities of cabinet government in our unwritten constitution, that at times like this they do have an authority and a moral imperative to articulate very honestly to the prime minister where things are at.

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.”

With Andy Burnham on his way back to Westminster, Labour must now find a candidate to contest what will be a tough byelection to replace him as Greater Manchester mayor.

Labour insists the byelection – scheduled for 30 July – will be a two-horse race between the party of government and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Yet the Green party, which won its first ever seat in northern England only four months ago in Manchester, are wasting no time in getting organised. Zack Polanski’s party will unveil its candidate tomorrow afternoon to get the jump on rivals.

The favourite for the role is believed to be Geraldine Coggins, the leader of the Greens on Trafford council in Greater Manchester.

The Greens are keen to portray the poll of 2m voters as a straight fight between them and Reform UK, particularly after their success in Gorton and Denton.

In reality, however, very few seats in this huge conurbation have the Green-friendly demographics – particularly the more heavily-populated Manchester side of it – and there are very few candidates who could capture the public imagination quite like Hannah ‘the plumber’ Spencer.

Applications to be Burnham’s successor as Labour candidate opened today, with the winner to be announced next Friday after shortlisting by the party’s ruling body and member voting.

Bev Craig, the leader of Manchester city council, is believed to be Burnham’s pick and is understood to have been considering the job since the ‘king of the north’ announced his Westminster intentions weeks ago.

Another contender is likely to be Eamonn O’Brien, the well-respected leader of Bury council, while Paul Dennett, Burnham’s deputy leader, would also be expected to throw his hat in the ring.

There has been no word yet from Reform UK on when its candidate will be unveiled. The party will be keen to avoid the controversies that dogged its two most recent candidate selections – Matt Goodwin in Gorton and Denton, and Rob Kenyon in Makerfield.

Labour will announce its candidate for the Greater Manchester mayoral byelection on 26 June.

Under a timetable released by the party, applications for selection opened at 5pm on Friday and will close at 5pm on Sunday.

Labour’s National Executive Committee will produce a longlist of candidates on 22 June and then a shortlist on 23 June, with members voting from 6pm on 23 June until 12pm on 26 June and the result announced later that day.

A party source said:

Labour in power in Greater Manchester has seen real improvements for people’s everyday lives.

From buses back in public control with capped fares, to thousands more homes and additional infrastructure built – all of this progress could be put at risk with Reform.

The Greens can’t win this race. It’s time to pass the torch from Andy Burnham, who has delivered for the area, to the next transformational Labour mayor.

As those around Nigel Farage are fond of pointing out, Reform UK has now led in more than 300 consecutive national polls. When it comes to byelections, though, it is fair to say the party’s results are more mixed.

Yes, Robert Kenyon came second in Makerfield to a popular regional mayor backed by a Labour campaign so relentless that the main risk was annoying voters by knocking too often on their doors. Kenyon also increased his and Reform’s share of the vote from the 2024 general election.

This, though, was a seat so demographically Reform-friendly that some pundits warned Andy Burnham was taking a big risk using it as his vehicle for a return to Westminster. In that context, as Farage himself said on Friday morning, Makerfield was a disappointment.

The larger danger is that it could become a trend. Of the five byelections held since the general election in 2024, Reform has only won a single seat, last year in Runcorn and Helsby – and that by precisely six votes.

The two byelections held in Scotland on Thursday were never on Farage’s agenda. But Makerfield comes four months after Reform also came a distant second in Gorton and Denton, that time to the Greens.

Both seats are in Greater Manchester, if politically and demographically very different. But they arguably contain some of the same lessons for Reform, including the importance of selecting the right candidate.

In the end, it wasn’t even close, Andy Burnham taking well over 50% of the vote and Rob Kenyon departing the stage without a murmur, never to be heard of again. Rob will probably be happier that way. He never looked as if he was much enjoying the attention of being the candidate for Reform in Makerfield.

After a brief acceptance speech at the count, Burnham reappeared six hours later at Ashton Town FC for the celebration rally proper. Flanked by several MPs waving ‘Andy for Us’ placards, and one notable ex-MP in Josh Simons who had vacated the seat for the coronation, Andy was all smiles in the sunshine. He’d even swapped out the slightly too tight black T-shirt for a slightly too tight white polo shirt. This was him dressing up for the occasion. He can do formal when he tries.

It was all rather surreal. A byelection that felt more like a general election. And that was certainly Burnham’s vibe. His speech was one that could have been made by a new incoming Labour prime minister who had just ousted a much-hated Tory government. In fact, he might have lifted huge chunks of it from the one Keir Starmer had given outside Downing Street less than two years previously. You could be forgiven for wondering just which parallel universe you were now living in.

“What a scene, what a campaign,” he began as he thanked the volunteers and people of Makerfield who had helped elect him to Westminster. Then a special thanks to Simons for having made way. Who had understood the message – the instruction – to change that had been given by voters at the May local elections and had made the ultimate sacrifice for the once and future king. Not just king of the north. But king of the whole UK. Move over, Charlie. There’s a new kid in town. He made it sound like a grail quest.

The SNP will “consider the implications” of its defeat in the Aberdeen South by-election, leader John Swinney has said, as he admitted the Tories seized the seat from his party after capturing “understandable anger” in the area over the future of the oil and has industry.

The Tories fought the by-election as a referendum on the sector – with an senior SNP source suggesting voters do not understand the party’s energy policy or view it as “weak”.

The first minister conceded the result of the by-election – held after former SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn won a seat in Holyrood last month – was “obviously a disappointment”.

While many had expected a close contest between Swinney’s party and the Tories, in the end Conservative candidate Douglas Lumsden won easily as the SNP vote collapsed, PA reported.

Allies of Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting will ask cabinet ministers, friends and Labour grandees to persuade Keir Starmer over the weekend not to fight a leadership challenge.

Burnham, who won a compelling majority in the Makerfield byelection overnight, is expected to travel to London on Monday to meet MPs in the expectation of becoming prime minister within weeks.

One MP said they believed there were about 200 Labour MPs prepared – if necessary – to sign Burnham’s nomination papers for a challenge.

Starmer was said to be calling members of the cabinet on Friday afternoon to set out his determination to fight on. At least two, Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood, have previously suggested to the prime minister that he should set out a timetable for his departure.

One source said they believed some other cabinet ministers would press the prime minister about whether fighting a leadership contest would be wise.

Senior Labour sources said they believed that if the prime minister did not resign over the weekend – or indicate that he would allow a transition to a new leader – then there would be an intervention at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.