Andy Burnham confirms he is running for Labour leadership in bid to ‘save party’

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May 16, 2026 - 17:10

Andy Burnham confirms he is running for Labour leadership in bid to ‘save party’

Andy Burnham has confirmed he will be running for a Labour leadership bid in order to 'save the party'.

The Greater Manchester Mayor willsaid it was "a moment to reclaim the Labour party", acknowledging it "needs to change" as

This comes after the Makerfield constituency seat freed up after its current MP Josh Simons announced he would step down to pave the way for Mr Burnham to return to Westminster.

If the Greater Manchester Mayor wins the seat, this would allow him to make a leadership bid for the role of Prime Minister, so long as he had the backing of 80 other MPs.

He said, speaking to the BBC: "Labour needs to change and be once again the party that people in this community knew and voted for for many years.

"I don't blame anybody who in recent times has gone away and voted for other parties.

"I want to regain their trust. I want Labour solidly to be the party of working class people and working class communities and that requires a lot of change."

Mr Burnham was given the approval to run for the seat yesterday by Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) after they previously blocked him from running in the Gorton & Denton by-election in February.