Andy Burnham positioned himself as a ‘soft left’ alternative to Keir Starmer in the Makerfield by-election
Thousands of people have voted for the Labour Party in the Makerfield by-election—because they want to oust the Labour prime minister.
Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester who will challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership, won with 55 percent of the vote.
Nigel Farage’s far right party Reform UK came second with 35 percent. Restore Britain, the right wing split from Reform UK led by Rupert Lowe MP, came third out of nowhere with 7 percent of the vote.
The other parties, including Tories, Liberal Dems and Greens, trailed behind on 3 percent.
Anti-racists are celebrating that the far right did not win in Makerfield. Supporters of Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) have handed out thousands of leaflets against Reform UK and Restore Britain in the by-election.
Labour politicians have breathed a sigh of relief as they believe Burnham can save the party—and many are pushing for an “orderly transition” and coronation.
In reality, the crisis for Labour has not gone away and nor will it even if Starmer is replaced.
First, Burnham’s popularity in the north west of England has come from positioning himself in opposition to Westminster. He has been able to do so without a major break with the politics of the neoliberal centre.
But he will find it much harder to “run against Labour” if he leads it.
The elections expert, Professor John Curtice said Burnham had “not only defied the national trend, but the historical trend of most governments in most by-elections”. “He didn’t just win handsomely, he increased his party’s share of the vote by nearly 10 points,” he said.
“Can this be replicated elsewhere? Between them, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Greens, got no more than 3 percent of the vote.
“There are two crucial elements to Burnham’s success. The first is the apparent readiness of those who are minded to vote for parties other than Reform UK or Restore Britain to fall in and back Burnham.
“In some instances, it will be anti-Reform UK tactical voting, but in other instances it’s the second element of his success.
“He was riding two horses at once. He was riding as the person who was trying to appeal to the traditional Labour vote. In most contests at the moment Labour has struggled to persuade more than half the people who voted for them in 2024 to vote for them again.
“Burnham gets them back into the fold. But he was able to appeal to those who want to see the back of Keir Starmer among people who voted Labour in the past and those who may be switching to the Greens or Liberal Democrats.
“When Burnham becomes prime minister, how easy will that trick be able to repeat. Once he’s his own man, he won’t be able to campaign against himself in the way that he’s been able to effectively campaign against Starmer.
Second, the crisis of the Labour Party goes much deeper than Starmer.
For the last three decades, Labour has seen itself as a better, fairer manager of neoliberalism. It sought to become, in the words of Labour-supporting author Jeremy Gilbert, the “corporate social responsibility department” of capitalism.
Starmer has surrounded himself with the ghosts of the Tony Blair era, but offered even less than back then.
Under Blair, Labour encouraged a financial boom and used the tax revenues from growth to spend more on the NHS, schools and public services. While Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves promised to use the state to boost growth, the malaise of British capitalism means they have little room for manoeuvrability.
Today, the whole system is in crisis from economic stagnation to climate chaos and the threat of war.
Big business is willing to allow very little right now and has been demanding Labour waters down the mildest of reforms that could put up barriers to profit-making. Starmer and Reeves have been happy to oblige.
There is plenty of money to boost working class living standards, but that requires a confrontation with big business and breaking with the market.
Will Burnham be more willing to take on the power of the rich? All the indications say no.
He said the Labour Party should not be in hock to the bond markets last year. He has spent the past year running away from the comment and trying to reassure big business.
Burnham told the bosses’ newspaper, the Financial Times, that he was misinterpreted. He said, “What I’ve said is we had a way of running the economy over a long period of time where we just gave up control of the fundamental drivers of the economy.”
He made clear that he has no plans to change the “fiscal rules” chancellor Rachel Reeves uses to justify Labour’s austerity mark 2.
Burnham has brought in three mainstream economists as advisors in a bid to reassure bosses and bankers that he has “fiscal credibility”.
One of them is former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane. The second is Richard Hughes who chaired the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR)—a body created by Tory chancellor George Osborne to police austerity.
The other is Jim O’Neill, a former Tory minister and former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
For all the “soft left” posturing, Burnham represents the politics of the neoliberal centre just as Starmer does.
He has not only made clear that he won’t step outside the fiscal rules set by Labour—meaning more austerity mark 2.
He has clearly signalled that there will be no break with the racism and authoritarianism of Labour—the opposite in fact.
During the campaign, he backed home secretary Shabana Mahmood’s plans to clamp down on immigration. He was following the same strategy as Starmer of trying to “out-Reform” on immigration.
As one ally said, “He must show decisive leadership on this and reframe, but back the reforms to restore control over our borders and create a firm but fair migration system.”
Only a few days later he threw trans+ people under the bus and backed the EHRC’s transphobic guidance.
This means a Burnham government will not be a bulwark against Reform UK or Restore Britain—it will be an incubator of the far right and fascism.
The scale of the threat was underlined by Reform UK and Restore coming second and third.
The key task for the left is building the anti-racist movement. And we need to push for the unions to lead a fight over the cost of living crisis.
Let’s build mobilisation from below, anti-racism and class struggle.
Dominion Society is building links with Restore Britain
Demos will be held across Britain
