Burnham Makerfield Campaign — 21 Days to Polling; Green Party Names Chris Kennedy
Andy Burnham’s Makerfield by-election campaign has 21 days to polling day on 18 June. The Green Party announced Chris Kennedy, a nurse, as its candidate yesterday. Kennedy said “we can’t let this election be dominated by a Westminster psychodrama” and vowed to “fight for warmer homes, lower bills, and a fairer economy”. Burnham faces Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon — the local plumber who came within 5,399 votes of Josh Simons in 2024; Conservative Michael Winstanley, who last stood in the constituency in 1997; and Liberal Democrat Jake Austin, a Stockport councillor. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has framed the contest as “a David versus Goliath battle”.
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. The Green Kennedy candidacy adds a fifth approved-list contestant to the by-election and could split the protest-vote bloc that would otherwise concentrate behind Reform UK. Burnham’s slogan is “Vote Andy — For Us”; he secured music rights from Oasis for his first campaign video. 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.