"Next stop, Downing Street, Mr. Burnham?" a Sky News reporter shouted at Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham as he arrived last night at the election center in Wigan to formally claim victory in the most-watched British parliamentary by-election in 88 years.
Burnham simply smiled, waved and said nothing. But everyone knew what the reporter meant: now that he was elected — quite easily — to a seat in the British House of Commons and thus eligible to become leader of the Labour Party, Burnham, 56, would almost certainly replace embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer and take up residence at the official residence of 10 Downing Street.
Elected in 2024 with the second-largest margin for Labour in British history, Starmer is now entangled in never-ending political messes ranging from a rise in crime, inflation, and seemingly uncontrolled illegal immigration.
A recent Ipsos poll showed Starmer the least popular prime minister since its polling began in the early 1970s.
Already, Health Secretary Wes Streeting — like Starmer, a member of Labour’s centrist faction — has resigned and signaled that he will challenge the prime minister for the Labour leadership at the party conference in September. The winner would become prime minister.
Burnham, a former Cabinet minister who unsuccessfully sought the Labour leadership in 2010, is generally regarded as part of the party's "soft left." He has positioned himself between Labour's centrist wing, associated with Starmer and former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and the party's more left-wing faction, long identified with former leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Burnham has said he admires the late Pope Francis, despite disagreeing with the pontiff's opposition to abortion.
Last week, Defense Minister John Healey and Armed Forces Minister Al Carns both announced their resignations in what many interpreted as a means of forcing Starmer to step aside sooner rather than waiting for the party conference.
"The [Labour Party] members love Burnham and the conference will be a great rallying point for him," said Christian Streeting, a former Conservative parliamentary candidate and political donor who has argued for closer alignment between the parties on the right in the UK.
"But Streeting and [former Housing Minister Angela] Rayner won't simply wave him through. A contest, not a coronation, is on the cards — which Burnham most likely wins."
Streeting also addressed the growing problem of the opposition party Reform UK and its leader, Nigel Farage.
Burnham won over half the votes in the by-election and almost twice as many as the runner-up and Reform candidate Robert Kenyon.
"Failing to take the seat didn't merely deny Reform a scalp," Streeting told Newsmax. "It midwifed their most dangerous opponent. A limping, unpopular Starmer would have been a gift to Reform. An energized Burnham, installed as Labour leader, is precisely the figure built to fight them for the northern working-class vote they are currently hoovering up.
"His entire proposition is reconnecting Labour with the very voters Makerfield embodies.
"So, the worst outcome for Farage was a Burnham win that both keeps the seat red and hands Labour the one leader most credibly equipped to halt the Reform march."
Lord Michael Dobbs, author of the popular "House of Cards" novels featuring sinister Prime Minister Francis "FU" Urquhart, described it as "an awful night for Nigel."
"Thrashed in Makerfield, nowhere in Scotland [by-elections], his Reform forces split by the new Restore Party. He might have peaked," he said.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.