Published 05.45
Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham wants to be Britain’s next Prime Minister.
But first, a swashbuckler is waiting for the far right to challenge for power at all.
Rain pours over the old mining town of Hindley in Lancashire. This is Brexit country, far from the finance and football stars of the nearby millionaire city of Manchester. In Hindley, for sale signs hang on every other house and closed pubs are crying out for new owners.
It is also here that Britain’s immediate political fate will be decided.
Hindley is in the constituency of Makerfield, where Manchester Lord Mayor Andy Burnham is now running for a vacant seat in the House of Commons.
If he succeeds, he has promised to challenge the hard-pressed Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the party leadership and the role of head of government.
Struggle against Reform
Burnham is called the “King of the North” and is very popular in dynamic Manchester.
– He is a traditional politician who gets things done, not like those in London, snorts voter Keith on the street in Hindley.
The only problem is that it might not be enough. In Hindley, many intend to do as Keith did – and choose someone else instead.
In the local elections here at the beginning of May, the far-right Reform party took home 24 of the 25 council seats that were then at stake.
– People are looking for alternatives. They want to give Reform a chance. I want to give Reform a chance, explains Keith.
Not talking about the EU
So even if Makerfield is considered one of Labour’s “safest” constituencies in the whole country, it is far from certain that Burnham will be able to defeat Reform candidate Rob Kenyon in Thursday’s election.
Ironically, he can be helped by the split of the far-right’s votes between Reform and the even more nationalist and anti-immigrant breakaway party Restore.
The 56-year-old Burnham likes to present himself as an ordinary boy from the area, in a t-shirt and bomber jacket. He has stopped talking about wanting to re-enter the EU and instead insists that the Brexit referendum must be respected – perhaps so important in a constituency where two-thirds voted to leave the EU in 2016.
Better than Starmer?
However, the uphill is substantial. Great Britain has had six different prime ministers in ten years and dissatisfaction is high among voters who find it difficult to see any positive developments.
This also applies to Ross, Ben and Lauren in central Manchester. Here too, it is doubtful whether Burnham can make any real difference.
– People are very divided about him, says Lauren.
– But at least he can’t be worse than Keir Starmer, Ben thinks.
Burnham and Makerfield
Andy Burnham, born 1969, has been the Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. He was previously a member of the British Parliament for Social Democratic Labor since 2001, was Secretary of State for Health in 2009–2010 and Deputy Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2007–2008.
Burnham hopes to challenge Keir Starmer for the post of party leader and prime minister, but must then, according to Labour’s rules, be re-elected to parliament. An opportunity has opened up since party colleague Josh Simons voluntarily left his seat in the Makerfield constituency, where a replacement will now be chosen in a by-election on 18 June.
Makerfield is located west of Manchester in an old mining area with just over 75,000 voters, mainly in the small towns of Ashton-in-Makerfield and Hindley.
