Andy Burnham Is On Course To Win In Makerfield – But Big Problems Lie Ahead For Labour

A change of prime minister won't necessarily improve the party's fortunes.

First, we’ll start of with good news for Andy Burnham. It looks as though he is all-but certain to win the Makerfield by-election.

With less than a fortnight to go until polling day on June 18, opinion polls – and the increasingly-confident Labour campaign team – suggest he holds a comfortable lead over Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon.

The most recent survey of voter opinion in the constituency puts Burnham on 49%, fully 10 points ahead of Kenyon on 39%.

Barring an unforeseen crisis, and in politics that can never be ruled out entirely, the Greater Manchester mayor will soon return to Westminster after a nine-year hiatus.

We now know, as Burnham himself confirmed on Question Time on Thursday night, that he will then move quickly to replace Keir Starmer and become Britain’s next prime minister.

It would be the culmination of a lifetime’s ambition for the former cabinet minister, who has twice tried and failed to become Labour leader before.

Burnham, the so-called “King of the North”, has vowed to change both the Labour Party and the way politics is done at Westminster, with a greater emphasis on public control of essential services and an end to 40 years of Thatcherite neoliberal economic theory.

With just three years to go until the next........

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