Andy Burnham has found the solution to parliamentary chaos: a by-election engineered specifically to destabilize the government he claims to want to lead. The Greater Manchester mayor is standing in Makerfield after Josh Simons resigned his seat, clearing the path for Burnham to launch what everyone is politely calling a ‘leadership bid’ and what actually is a hostile takeover attempt dressed as constituency representation.
The timing is exquisite. Wes Streeting quit as health secretary citing lost confidence in Keir Starmer. Another MP resigned from the Department of Health. The party is imploding, Burnham declared, which is precisely why the correct response is to trigger a by-election that will dominate the news cycle for weeks and force every Labour MP to pick a side in a civil war they didn’t start. Stability achieved.
Starmer’s government is hemorrhaging ministers and morale. The solution, apparently, is to give it a second open wound. If Burnham wins Makerfield—and he will, because it’s a safe Labour seat and he’s not technically running against the current Prime Minister—he gets a seat in Parliament from which to formally challenge Starmer. This is what Labour meant when it promised competent governance after years of Conservative chaos.
The absurdity deepens when you consider that Simons, the outgoing MP, framed his resignation as a sacrifice for the greater good. He stood down because Labour was imploding and only Burnham could save it. Never mind that Burnham’s entire strategy is to accelerate the implosion by forcing a leadership election mid-parliament. The logic here is that you stabilize a sinking ship by removing the captain and installing a mutineer with a megaphone.
Makerfield residents have been asked what they think. They think it’s mad. They’re right. The constituency didn’t ask for a by-election. They didn’t ask to be the battleground for a Labour Party civil war. They asked for representation, and they got a proxy war between ambitious politicians who’ve decided that winning internally matters more than looking like adults in public.
Burnham is being presented as the stability candidate. He’s the one who will fix things. He’s also the one dismantling the current government’s credibility in real time to get a shot at the top job. If this is stability, instability must involve actual explosions.
The press release will probably use the word ‘reset’ twice.