Andy Burnham has won a huge victory for Labour in the Makerfield byelection, opening up the path for him to challenge Keir Starmer for the party leadership and to become the UK’s next prime minister.

Burnham won 55% of the vote, 9,000 votes more than Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon, who trailed in second with 35%, while Restore Britain came third with 7%. The turnout was more than 58%.

In his victory speech, Burnham said the Labour party now has “a final chance to change”.

“There will be no second chance, but it is a chance now, from this result tonight, to build a new politics based on unity and hope, turning away from the path that takes us to a divided politics of the kind we’ve seen in the United States.

“We must now take this path and put this country back on the right path, and bring people back together and get things working properly again.”

The Makerfield byelection was triggered by the resignation of former MP Josh Simons, who stood down in the Greater Manchester seat in May to give Burnham – a Labour figure polls suggest is capable of winning a general election against Nigel Farage – the chance to return to Westminster and unseat Starmer as Labour leader and prime minister.

Starmer has said that despite Labour’s appalling showing in the local elections in May and consistently poor polling against Reform, he will not stand down and will fight any leadership challenge.

If Starmer can be persuaded to leave of his own accord, and there are no other challengers, Burnham could be prime minister within a matter of weeks.

If there are other challengers – such as Wes Streeting, who resigned as health secretary last month – there could be a full Labour party leadership contest.

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