‘I’m not a Labour fan but I like Burnham’: relief in Makerfield among left, right and centre

The morning after Andy Burnham secured a landslide byelection victory in Makerfield, returning him to Westminster after nine years as Manchester mayor, it is hard to avoid the large, red placards bearing his face.

But Burnham’s win was not just thanks to Labour loyalists. Instead, it appears that a coalition of voters from the left, centre and even the right united to back him at the ballot box.

Burnham achieved his victory with a majority of 9,231 votes over the Reform UK candidate, Robert Kenyon – bigger than that enjoyed by his predecessor. Labour won 55% of the vote to Reform’s 35%, while the hard-right party Restore Britain secured 7%. Turnout was 59%, six percentage points up on the general election, with 45,510 votes cast.

Both the Liberal Democrats and the Green party ran subdued campaigns, allowing Labour to absorb a broad range of voters, while the right wing vote was divided between Reform UK and Restore Britain.

“Two years ago the Liberal Democrat and Green candidates won 11% of the Makerfield vote,” veteran pollster Peter Kellner noted in his analysis of the byelection result. “Yesterday they won just one per cent, setting new records for vote-shedding while they helped to ensure that Burnham beat Kenyon.”

In Orrell waterpark, three friends – Mal, 64, Peta, 48, and Barb, 64 – said they were all Green supporters usually but backed Burnham on Thursday, who they believed had the best chance of defeating the “divisive” politics of the right.

Mal, a former social worker, said he had been angered by the immigration-focused campaigns of Reform UK and Restore Britain in Makerfield, a constituency whose population is 95% white British.

“It’s nothing to do with migrants – they’re the people treating us in hospital. Reform are coming in causing so many problems and that’s why we don’t want that,” he said.

Peta said the byelection had been “hugely” divisive “between family, neighbours, people you speak to in the street”, adding: “I don’t know if people realise how far right they’ve fallen.”

Barb said she hoped the area would be able to come back together after its polarising and high-profile time in the spotlight, noting that many Reform UK and Restore Britain activists had come from farther afield: “There will need to be work done to bring ordinary decent people back together again,” she said.