Burnham set for by-election bid, but can he win Makerfield?
The Daily T
The Telegraph
4.1 • 702 Ratings
🗓️ 15 May 2026
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Andy Burnham has announced his intention to stand in a by-election in Makerfield after Josh Simons, the Labour MP and former Cabinet Office minister, stood down to clear his path back to Westminster.
The Mayor of Greater Manchester is by far the most popular Labour politician and would be confident of success in a leadership contest against Sir Keir Starmer. But first he has to be allowed to fight the seat – which is in his own backyard – by the party’s National Executive Committee, and then beat Reform, which won the Makerfield wards in last week’s local elections.
Camilla Tominey and Tim Stanley assess the chances of Burnham securing the nomination for and then winning Makerfield, as well as the role that Ed Miliband has played and where it leaves Wes Streeting after his resignation as health secretary on Thursday.
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Producer: Georgia Coan
Social Media Producer: Nada Aggour
Senior Producer: John Cadigan
Executive Producer: Charlotte Seligman
Video Producer: Will Walters
Studio Operator: Meghan Searle
Editor: Camilla Tominey
Highlights
- Andy Burnham announces his intention to stand in Makerfield
- How confident should he be of beating Reform?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph. |
| 0:09.6 | The King of the North is assembling his troops ready to march on Westminster. |
| 0:14.1 | Andy Burnham has finally found a seat for his epic chicken run. |
| 0:18.1 | The left-wing mayor of Manchester looks set to become the main challenger to the Prime Minister, |
| 0:23.0 | but can he even win Makerfield? |
| 0:25.5 | Reform is nipping at his heels. |
| 0:27.9 | Welcome to The Daily Tea with me, Camilla Tomini. |
| 0:30.3 | And me, Tim Stanley. |
| 0:46.5 | Thank you. Morning, Tim, the fog of anaesthetic has worn off. |
| 0:48.5 | I'm back in the land of the living. |
| 0:50.8 | It's so strange going under. |
| 0:52.9 | I haven't had a general anaesthetic in years. |
| 0:53.4 | Yeah. |
| 1:11.8 | And the guy was like, okay, the needle goes in and then I started, it's funny, it was quite funny. I looked obviously terrible. I had my glasses on. I'm in a gown and you know what it's like, like you've tied it up at the back. And he was just about to put me under and he was like, I recognize you. Oh, no. Oh, God. |
| 1:27.4 | He's been on Newsnight. I said, yeah, no, I've been on a few things. I said, I'll present this podcast with Tim Stanley. Oh, yeah, he's been on News Tonight recently. I was like, yeah. Anyway, okay, right, in 10 seconds, you'll be under. So it's just one of those ones. Or you could ask if he's a fan of Megan Markle. |
| 1:28.5 | No, I know. |
| 1:27.9 | I don't think I'd want to be put out on the thought of Megal Markle. And then, |
| 1:32.6 | of course, you wake up and everything. But the whole day was a bit hazy yesterday. You and Jacob |
| 1:37.9 | and Ben Riley Smith did a great job. But obviously, I was following things as I recovered in bed. |
| 1:43.6 | And we have yet more drama. |
| 1:46.1 | We do, yes. There were two halves to the leadership challenge, Akir Starma. One was would |
| 1:52.3 | West Streeting resign? And yesterday he did. That's what we discussed with Ben Riley Smith. |
... |
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