Starmer urges Labour to move on as Burnham by-election looms

Sir Keir Starmer is trying to shut down talk of a leadership contest just as Andy Burnham’s route back to Westminster comes into view in Makerfield. The by-election, set for Thursday, 18 June 2026, has become a test of whether Labour can keep its focus on governing while another power centre gathers strength outside Parliament.

The contest matters far beyond Wigan because Burnham cannot mount any direct challenge to Starmer without first winning a Commons seat. Makerfield has been Labour-held since 1983, but the political ground has shifted sharply since the 4 July 2024 general election, when Labour won 45.2 percent of the vote, a majority of 5,399, and turnout reached 52.5 percent in an electorate of 76,641. Reform UK finished second with 31.8 percent and 12,803 votes, a result that underlined how vulnerable even a long-safe seat has become.

A June 2026 poll put Burnham on 49 percent, with Reform’s Robert Kenyon on 37 percent and the Greens and Restore Britain on 5 percent each. Nigel Farage has said Reform will throw “absolutely everything” at the seat, while Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain is also standing after an acrimonious split last year, leaving the right-wing vote potentially fractured. With 14 candidates on the ballot, the arithmetic points to a fierce and highly symbolic contest rather than a routine by-election.

The comparison to Leyton in east London, where a deliberately created vacancy in 1965 ended with Patrick Gordon Walker losing to Reginald Sorensen, will only sharpen the sense of risk. Labour is trying to avoid repeating a historic blunder in which a tactical move designed to ease a leadership path instead opened the door to defeat.

That danger is amplified by Labour’s wider crisis. Almost 100 backbench MPs have demanded that Starmer set out a timetable for his departure after disastrous local election results last month, and about half a dozen Cabinet ministers are believed to have privately told him the same. Starmer has rejected those demands, saying he will not “walk away” and warning that doing so would “plunge the country into chaos”.

He is also expected to tell ministers they must resign if they back Burnham in any future leadership contest, according to No 10 sources. Wes Streeting has already said he wants Starmer to set out a timetable and warned he could trigger a challenge as early as next week if Burnham wins. Yet Starmer has also signalled he wants Burnham to “play a big part in the Labour government” if he succeeds, suggesting a cabinet role could follow. That uneasy balance captures the central question of Makerfield: whether Labour can remain a governing party, or whether the by-election becomes the first stage in a struggle for power inside its own ranks.