Burnham Makerfield Campaign — 22 Days to Polling Day, “Vote Andy For Us”
Andy Burnham’s Makerfield by-election campaign has 22 days to polling day on 18 June. The Greater Manchester mayor’s slogan is “Vote Andy — For Us”; he secured the music rights from Oasis for his first campaign video. Burnham faces Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon — the local plumber and army reservist who came within 5,399 votes of Josh Simons in 2024; Liberal Democrat Jake Austin, a Stockport councillor; and Conservative Michael Winstanley, who last stood in Makerfield in 1997. Sir Keir Starmer has said he will be “100% behind” Burnham and would campaign personally for him — the political theatre of a Prime Minister campaigning for a leadership-rival-in-waiting now defines the next three weeks.
Reform UK comfortably won every ward in the Makerfield constituency at the 7 May local elections; Burnham himself won 66% of the vote in Wigan in the 2024 Greater Manchester mayoral election. Pollsters have signalled that having Burnham running significantly boosts Labour’s chances of retaining the seat, but the contest remains tough. A YouGov poll of Labour members shows Burnham beating Wes Streeting 80% to 10% in a potential leadership race that does not involve Starmer. Burnham’s campaign pitch centres on the local-constituency framing — “Westminster hasn’t been working for the north” — while his allies push the “ten-week timetable” coronation framework behind closed doors.