Andy Burnham has officially won his special election and regained a seat in Parliament, setting him up to challenge the deeply unpopular Keir Starmer as the leader of the Labour party and as prime minister.Burnham, currently the mayor of Greater Manchester in northwest England, won a seat in Makerfield and came away with 55% of the vote in a field of more than a dozen candidates, according to The Associated Press.The runner-up was Rob Kenyon of Reform UK, a right-wing populist party, who received more than 9,000 fewer votes than Burnham.Burnham last served as a member of Parliament in 2017 but strongly implied in his victory speech that he is returning with the intention to lead the United Kingdom."Everyone knows that politics isn’t working.
Everyone can feel that the country isn’t where it should be.Tonight could, just could, be the turning point," he said, according to the AP.
"This result will bring about a country that works fairly for everywhere and for everybody."TRUMP ALLY NIGEL FARAGE DEALS MAJOR BLOW TO STARMER IN LOCAL UK ELECTIONS AS RESIGNATION CALLS MOUNTBritain's Labour party candidate Andy Burnham speaks to supporters after the Makerfield by-election in Ashton in Makerfield, England, on Friday, June 19, 2026.(Jon Super/AP)This special election, called by-elections in Britain, was unusually significant because the area's Labour MP, Josh Simons, intentionally resigned to allow Burnham to win the seat and pursue leadership.The potentially outsized impact of this election was juxtaposed with the strange scene that unfolded when all the candidates gathered on Friday morning to hear the results.
Burnham stood in between an independent candidate dressed in a fox costume and another candidate known as "Count Binface".As his name suggests, "Count Binface," whose real name is Jonathan David Harvey, was wearing a trash can on his head and regularly runs in U.K.elections to advocate for increased voter turnout.Starmer congratulated Burnham in a social med...