ANDY Burnham has won the Makerfield by-election.
Much of the current seat of Makerfield used to be part of the former constituency of Ince, which was held by Labour without interruption from 1906 to 1983.
Makerfield was created in 1983 and continued the trend of returning Labour MPs to Westminster, the most recent of which was Josh Simons, who was elected in 2024.
The by-election in Makerfield was triggered by the resignation of Simons in order to allow Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham the chance to stand for a seat at Westminster.
Here are the full results:
The full list of Makerfield candidates were:
- Labour: Andy Burnham - 24,927 (54.82%, +9.62%)
- Reform UK: Rob Kenyon - 15,696 (34.51%, +2.71%)
- Restore: Rebecca Shepherd - 3111 (6.84%)
- Conservatives: Michael Winstanley - 997 (2.19%, -8.68%)
- Greens: Sarah Wakefield - 308 (0.68%, -3.73%)
- LibDems: Jake Austin - 163 (0.36%, -6.43%)
- Binface: Count Binface - 95 (0.21%)
- Loony: Howling Laud Hope - 45 (0.10%)
- Independent: John Dyer - 37 (0.08%)
- Rejoin: Peter Ward - 35 (0.08%)
- Libertarian: Dan Clarke - 18 (0.04%)
- Climate: Ed Gemmell - 18 (0.04%)
- Independent: Robert Pownall - 18 (0.04%)
- Independent: Paul Gould - 8 (0.02%)
The turnout in Makerfield
Turnout in Makerfield is the highest for a parliamentary by-election in nearly seven years.
The last time a by-election had a higher turnout was the contest in Brecon & Radnorshire in August 2019, which saw the Liberal Democrats win the seat from the Conservatives.
The turnout on this occasion was 59.6%.
What was the result in Makerfield in the 2024 General Election?
Labour’s share of the vote at the 2024 general election was 45%, with Reform UK in second place on 32%, followed by the Conservatives on 11%, the Liberal Democrats on 7% and the Greens on 4%.
This was Reform’s sixth highest vote share in the UK at the 2024 election, behind only Clacton, Ashfield, Boston & Skegness, Great Yarmouth and Barnsley South.
Reform’s candidate in 2024, Rob Kenyon, is standing again this time, along with Burnham for Labour and 12 others, including the Conservatives, the Lib Dems, the Greens and Restore Britain.
Simons’s majority in 2024 was 5399.
This is smaller than the Labour majority overturned by Reform at the Runcorn & Helsby by-election in Cheshire in May 2025 (14,696), and the Labour majority overturned by the Greens at the Gorton & Denton by-election in Greater Manchester in February 2026 (13,413).
