For the past two years, Reform’s rising popularity in the polls under the leadership of Nigel Farage, an ally of President Trump and an architect of Brexit, has terrified its opponents.

The mechanics of what happens next, however, are hazy.

“Burnham doesn’t want to be seen to be politically assassinating Starmer,” said Steven Fielding, emeritus professor of political history at the University of Nottingham. “He wants him to go — at least ostensibly — under his own steam.”

Mr. Starmer would lose if he decided to run in a leadership contest against Mr. Burnham, Prof. Fielding argued, and the process would divide and damage the Labour Party. “It would be like Custer’s last stand: Nobody wins, the party won’t win, the country won’t win and he won’t win.”

To trigger a leadership contest, a challenger needs to be a Labour lawmaker — a hurdle Mr. Burnham has now cleared — and have the support of 20 percent of their colleagues, or about 80 lawmakers currently. Under the Labour rulebook, fee-paying party members would get the final choice. However, if Mr. Starmer agreed not to fight and Mr. Burnham was the only candidate, the membership would not have to vote.

Wes Streeting, who recently quit the cabinet as health secretary, has indicated he wants to run for leader, though opinion polls show him to be significantly less popular than Mr. Burnham.

An alternative to a leadership race could be for Mr. Starmer to step aside, perhaps in time for Labour’s annual conference in September, and for Mr. Streeting to accept a senior cabinet position under Mr. Burnham in exchange for agreeing not to force a contest.

On Friday morning, Louise Haigh, a Labour lawmaker and close ally of Mr. Burnham, said she hoped the process would be “as managed and controlled as possible.”

On Friday morning, Louise Haigh, a Labour lawmaker and close ally of Mr. Burnham, said she hoped the process would be “as managed and controlled as possible.”

“I would hope that Andy and the prime minister can speak over the coming days,” Ms. Haigh told the BBC. “We want to avoid a leadership contest if possible, and we hope that we can agree a way forward.”

So far, Mr. Starmer has given no indication that he will bow to pressure and step aside. However, while leading the party in opposition in 2021, he once briefly contemplated resigning for the good of the party after Labour lost a special election in Hartlepool.

He later told Sky News he considered quitting “because I didn’t feel that I should be bigger than the party and that if I couldn’t bring about the change, perhaps there should be a change.”

One way of putting pressure on Mr. Starmer would be for ministers to threaten to resign from his government, if he refuses to go. In 2022, mass ministerial resignations forced the Conservative prime minister, Boris Johnson, from Downing Street, by making his government untenable.

If he is confident enough of his support, Mr. Burnham could effectively tell Mr. Starmer to choose how he wants to wrap up his time as prime minister: the easy way or the hard way.

In either case, the scale of Mr. Burnham’s victory has left him in a commanding position.

In the fight for Makerfield, Reform U.K’s candidate, Robert Kenyon, faced competition from a new far-right party called Restore Britain. Some analysts expected that to split the vote, letting Mr. Burnham through by default. But Mr. Burnham’s vote total easily exceeded that of both Reform and Restore combined.

Some factors helped Mr. Burnham who, as mayor of Greater Manchester, had established himself as a popular local politician. Because of his well known ambitions to take over the Labour Party, some voters may have opted for him in the hope of getting rid of Mr. Starmer.

On Friday, Mr. Farage said he was “disappointed” with the outcome, but said Labour had benefited from running a campaign that urged voters: “Vote Burnham, get Starmer out.” Reform, Mr. Farage argued, was successful in many municipal elections in May after arguing that voting for his party would help get rid of Starmer, so “we were slightly hoist with our own petard.”

But the loss in another special election will prompt soul-searching in Reform, which saw Makerfield as a stronghold.

Reform has led other parties in national opinion polls for more than a year, with about 30 percent saying they supported it last year. That share has dipped recently to around 25 percent.

Reform lost a special election in February to the Green Party in the Gorton and Denton district in northern England, and it lost another one last year in Caerphilly to Plaid Cymru, a center left Welsh nationalist party, in a contest for a seat in the Welsh Parliament.

“If we can’t win in Makerfield, can we win anywhere?” Tim Montgomerie, a former Conservative who defected to Reform, pondered in an interview with The New York Times last month.

The result may indicate, some analysts say, that Reform’s agenda is so polarizing that a majority of British voters will opt for whatever party they believe can defeat it in any specific vote, even if it’s not their first choice.

For now, Mr. Burnham, who took a gamble by running in the Makerfield seat, has hit the political jackpot.

“The way that Burnham won has created an even greater sense of momentum and inevitability, that’s he’s the one that can save the Labour Party,” said Mr. Fielding. “It’s in the Labour Party’s interests for this to be resolved without a leadership contest by the end of next week.”

>>1520329
>Labour defeats ReformUK
Worse still:
Labour: 54%
Restore UK: 6.8%
And the latter only exists via a sole MP - elected in 2024 - leaving Reform UK. All the by-elections Reform have lost since.
>2024
>Labour won with a massive majority
>2026
>Labour win by-election with a massive majority
>municipal elections
>Reform UK won St. Andrews & Docklands seat in Hull: by Salman Anwar
So much for the notion that Reform UK is anti-immigration
>Restore UK: 6.8% in Makerfield, won by Labour
So much for the notion of being anti-immigration winning votes.

>>1520330
>The rapes will continue until morale improves

>beaten in by-elections
>Makerfield: Labour 54%. Restore UK 6.8%
>nobody's being taken in by Restore's lies: or Labour wouldn't have won yesterday
The beatings of liars will continue until opinions improve.

>>1520329
>Labour had benefited from running a campaign that urged voters: “Vote Burnham, get Starmer out.”
Big if true, considering the best way to get the maniacal leader of a failed party out of office is to NOT vote for his party in elections. What a lousy state of affairs.

>>1520449
Not really.

>Big
>Labour 54%, Restore UK 6.8%
Facts destroy so-called 'Truth'. Certainly now (Un)Restore(d)'s Lies
>get the maniacal leader of a failed party out of office is to NOT vote for his party in elections
But enough about Boris 'Bozo the Clown' Johnson, then the 50 day lettuce Liz Surgical Truss, and the drip in the leaky rowing boat that was 'HMS Conservative Party': Rishi 'Ritchie Rich' Sunak.
>a massive 400+ seat majority in 2024
>a massive 54% win 24 hours ago
What a lousy state of affairs for inferior subhuman lying white rightards
Yes, The beatings of liars will continue until opinions improve, despite what subhumans living in a certain river in Egypt claim to the contrary after their wrong opinions - thus lies - are destroyed by reality

>>1520329
Lol. The Bongs never learn do they.
The Canada of europe will continue to suck shit.
Maybe in 500 years you can claim to be indigenous peoples.

Lol. Subhuman rightards never learn, do they?
Lying subhuman white rightards will continue to suck shit.
Maybe they'll be listened to, just before the heat death of the universe.

>>1520455
Don't be too much of a pussy to reply to me next time, faggot. You forgot to spoiler out the rest of your post as well.

>>1520455
>>1520453
>>1520449
Most blatant bot posting I've ever seen

1520475 is too much of a newfag pussy tourist to know about how to deny others of '(You)'s.
>i-i-if you don't think as I do, y-y-you're a bot!
>d-d-don't call me a bot! Only I can dish it out because I'm a hypocrite!
1520476 is the most blatant bot I've ever seen.
Certainly the most blatant seething by a liggy miggy piggy in the face of opinion-obliterating reality: that so many others - voters in Makerfield - will never allow the retarded opinions of inferior rightards to exist in their superior minds.

>>1520478
its just right wing chuds howling as discrimination is ending and destroying their social welfare
its doubly funny that they'll be screeching about societies downfall while we're just weeding out the low performers

>>1520479
>its just right wing chuds howling as discrimination is ending
And do you know what the best part is? If the chuds think that a Starmer-led Labour - certainly a Prime Minister - is as 'Woke' as it's possible to be, as ol' Ronnie would say 'You ain't seen nothing yet'.
Should Burnham win a leadership challenge and become Prime Minister, he'll have authority over Scotland Yard's Cybercrime section, MI6, and that which scans, monitors & intercepts the entire telecommunications network: GCHQ
And why shouldn't PM Andy Burnham use such to deny rightard liars of their right to have wrong opinions: or any rights whatsoever?
https://far-rightcriminals.com/far-right-sexual-offences/
Even their right to exist.

>>1520464
shitskin

>>1520479
>>1520480
It's good to kill leftists.

>>1520479
>We're
Hi, India shill. You've outed yourself yet again.

>>1520479
>>1520464
I'm going to enjoy seeing your families get raped to death, you'd deserve it

>>1520493
Jokes on you. My gay husband and I will adopt our own boy to rape to death.

1520481
1520482
1520493
>liggy miggy piggies impotently seethe at reality destroying all their wrong opinions, especially when white Labour voters elect a white candidate who destroys inferior subhuman white rightards
You love to see it.

>>1520497
But why, Paj?

I'm looking forward to Reform UK winning a bunch of seats, passing stupid policy items like Brexit, then hiding in caves for a decade while Labour and Tories have to clean up the mess only to come back out when the hard work is done to claim that things aren't working without them. Great grift if you can get it.

>Reform UK winning a bunch of seats
>In municipal elections, the St. Stephens & Docklands seat is won for Reform UK - the party supposedly for the interests of whites in that country - by Salman Anwar
Just ask Nigewani SaaRAGE, projecting jeet shills.
Meanwhile, Conservatives - with their white 1922 Committee - emerge from the mess that was Rishi Sunak with the choice of leader they elected after the result on 5th July 2024.
Should Andy Basedham win the leadership election and become PM, the by-election he won has caused such a mess between now (Un)Reform(ed) and (Un)Restore(d) with a split in the vote for both, with a massive majority in 2024 and a massive win yesterday, Labour come out of all this smelling of roses, one of which is the party's logo.
And liggy miggy piggies perma-seethe. Schadenfreude when inferior subhuman rightards & their wrong opinions fail. That's why.

>>1520459
>The Canada of europe

U asS A is the future Spain of Europe.

once great empire reduced to brownage.

here in Canada, I'll take educated Desis legally immigrating into my country over illegal illiterate mestizos like in the U asS A

>>1520515
Which party passed the stupid policies that resulted in 250,000 women to be raped by Muslims/"Asians"? We can't trust the people who caused the problem to clean up the mess they created

>>1520531
You're next, whitey

>>1520531
which day aren't you being humiliated

>>1520497
wdym i'm going to watch you get raped to death while people call you a racist. It's going to happen to you and your family one way or another

The fanfictions by liggy miggy piggies such as 1520538 when they're confronted by reality which goes against - and therefore proves wrong - their opinions makes the schadenfreude of their despair all the better.
>b-b-but rightists aren't the terroristic ones! Y-y-you are!
>W-w-white rightists would never think of being this immoral by being reduced to wishing bad things on others!
>get raped to death
>to you and your family
>https://far-rightcriminals.com/far-right-sexual-offences/
The duality of the hypocrite.

>>1520515
It’s insane that people fall for shit like this. Ignorance really is the death of society.

>>1520538
Anon, you do know I don't have two gay dads, right?

>>1520480
Are they seriously categorizing Muslim crime as "far-right"? The right wants all Muslims deported and Islam banned

>>1520545
>t. Oinkposter oinking

>>1520568
thanks for proving once again that you don't know english

>Starmer already out.
>Labour might actually be swinging back to the left in time to unfuck itself and the country before the next election.
Holy shit, a political party capable of learning from its mistakes and rejecting terrible leadership!

I didn't think that was possible after the Cons put in place a series of hopeless clowns and Republicans rehabbed Trump after Jan 6th.

>>1520589
I'm surprised the UK hasn't gone exactly the same as the US with the far right in control of everything because the 'liberal' party is center right wing causing steady slide to the right.

>>1520589
>"left wing"
>Unfuck the country
lol good one.

>>1520589
trump will win 2028 and you will be executed

1520569
t. liggy miggy piggy oinker stays seething, Labour keeps on winning.
1520568
>The right wants all Muslims deported and Islam banned
Strange how (Un)Reform(ed) - the party supposedly purely for the interests of white people - have Salman Anwar in the St. Stephens & Docklands seat in Hull.
>Burnham is pro-immigration
>so many white people - and they are white despite the 'claims' of 'shitskin' & 'Paj' by projecting rightard shills in /news/ - elected a white candidate.
Thanks for proving >>1520570 correct. And you have no reading comprehension, 1520568, thus >>1520570 is even more correct.
1520608
Nice fanfics.

>>1520597
How many right wing PMs do you need to shit the bed before you realize they suck and are ruining your country?

God you probably can't wait for Mr. Brexit to be in charge, huh? How'd listening to him work out last time?

>>1520618
They really don't have a choice, Anon. The most important single-issue vote in (Current Year) in every nation on the planet is electing a party that will get rid of browns, and the non-conservative sides simply don't seem to have a plan for that.

>>1520629
Where do you people get this shit from?

>>1520630
Living in the same nation as browns. Its called using your senses directly rather than relying entirely on media narratives. If you live anywhere near browns, you know that they're the problem. Every problem.

1520629
1520639
>The most important single-issue vote in (Current Year) in every nation on the planet is electing a party that will get rid of browns
>every nation
>a nation that starts with 14 years: from a pigfucker to a dollar store Trump with equally stupid hair who ensures 'Brexit' but fucks it up, leading to fucking up the country & himself during a pandemic, to a 50 day lettuce, then a jeet: even beyond that drip in the leaky rowing boat that was 'HMS Conservative Party', the white 1922 Committee replace said jeet with a black woman
>Meanwhule, a white nation elects a party's white leader to become PM, then two years later elect to a seat in municipal elections a brown for a party apparently representing the interests of that nation's white people
>Just two days ago, white people elect in a by-election a white candidate who could ultimately become PM of that nation
The most important single-issue vote is electing a party that proves the opinions of rightards on a nondescript part of the internet wrong.
Just ask all those who ensured Labour won a massive 400+ seat majority in 2024, then two years later Labour win a by-election with 54%
The most important single-issue for those voters is 'Why should we listen to rightards that never had the right to have their wrong opinions listened to in the first place?' but also 'Why should we allow rightards to have any political power?'
So many people voting differently to rightards with eternally wrong opinions can't be wrong. That's Democracy. The Will of the People.
Living in the same nation as rightards. Its called using your senses directly rather than listening to rightard liars with wrong opinions. If you live anywhere near rightards, you know that they're the problem. Every problem.

>>1520639
What did the brown people do to you that made you like this? Were you raped?

The harshest punishments are reserved for traitors.

>>1520629
>The most important single-issue vote in (Current Year) in every nation on the planet is electing a party that will get rid of browns
You ever think maybe that getting rid of brown people won't meaningly improve anyone's lives while costing a ton of resources, manpower, and good will, and the people campaigning on that shit aren't even considering how to make the rest of government work for the people because they're counting on appealing to a single issue voter bloc to propel them into power where they can then just abuse their access to enrich themselves if not gain access to children to rape and then cash out to countries they haven't fucked up yet when the chickens come home to roost?

>>1520668
>You ever think that getting rid of brown people won't meaningfully improve...
No. It will meaningfully and measurably improve everything about the society in which we live. It will make it safer, smarter, more productive and more sanitary.
>While costing a ton of resources
...Which you can get as soon as you declare war on the browns and take all of theirs.
>Manpower
Which people will start having again when their communities are safe and they're being paid better wages in the absence of the brown underclass undercutting wages.
>and good will
There never was any good will. They're different from us, and they're never going to stop being different from us. The biggest threat to any human being on this planet is, and has always been, any other human being who is different and chooses to become hostile about that fact, as the browns are doing to us.
>And the people campaigning on that shit are...
Yes, they're taking advantage of the situation. If you ever found a single person in politics not trying to take advantage of the situation, you'd have found the fool. Simply being a public figure is inherently dangerous, you're going to be looking for a way to justify that risk. But if it gets us what we need, which is the deletion of the browns, then we can certainly work together on that point. Eventually they'll fuck off to another country as you suggest and our country will still be free of brownoid scum. Its worth a few generations of trouble.

>The harshest punishments are reserved for rightards
ftfy

>>1520668
>just abuse their access to enrich themselves if not gain access to children to rape
These are the same individuals that shill leftism and want to use browns as a biological weapon. The same ones that denied the Epstein files ever existed and insist the grooming gangs are a conspiracy theory.
Deporting browns is antithetical to them because they can only survive in multiethnic, multicultural nations.

>whites who voted in a government led by a white man with a 400+ seat majority in 2024
>whites who elected a white MP - and potential PM - days ago
These are the same individuals that reject rightard shills that think browns are a biological hazard. The same rightards now denying the Epstein files despite previously claiming they existed because their orange god made releasing such a campaign policy in 2024, and insist the grooming Gang Of Pedophiles - with their refusal to make child marriages illegal - are a conspiracy theory.
Being human is antithecal to rightards because they and their eternally wrong opinions can't survive in multicultural nations that are so, and by the will of the people: as proven via elections in 2024 & 2026 in UK.