The Makerfield by-election, in which Andy Burnham will stand as Labour’s candidate, will take place next month as her
Wigan Council has confirmed the by-election will occur on Thursday 18 June, in a notice on Wednesday.
The Mayor of Greater Manchester, seen as a challenger to embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer, would need to win the Makerfield seat near Manchester before launching any formal leadership challenge.
Dire local election results, calls from Labour MPs for him to go and a slew of resignations from the junior Government ranks last week threw Sir Keir’s political future into doubt.
Reform UK’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election, Robert Kenyon, is the other nominated candidate in the key by-election, as the Conservatives, Liberial Democrats, Green Party mull over their own candidates.
The by-election date announcement came as Wes Streeting has warned the Labour Government is losing the fight against nationalism and, unless it changes course, risks “handing the keys of No 10 to Reform”.
He delivered his resignation speech in the Commons on Wednesday after quitting as health secretary last week and calling on the Prime Minister to step down.
Mr Streeting told MPs: “I left the government because we are in the fight of our lives against nationalism, and it is a fight that we are currently losing.
“Unless we change course, we risk handing the keys of No 10 to Reform, and I do not want that on our consciences.
“For the first time in our history, nationalists are in power in every corner of the United Kingdom.
“Scottish and Welsh nationalism represents an existential threat to the future integrity of the United Kingdom.
“And Reform UK represent a threat to the values and ideals that have made this country great.”
He also told MPs he does not believe Labour has “time to waste in government treading water” and said it needed to “fight” for young people, who “for the first time in our modern history, face worse prospects than the last”.
The UK has failed to protect young people from the “AI jobs apocalypse,” Mr Streeting said, warning that “unless mainstream democratic politics can answer these questions, others will exploit that vacuum”.
The former health secretary referenced the challenge Mr Burnham faces in the Makerfield contest.
He framed the battle as being between “progressives against reactionaries, of patriots versus nationalists, of hope over hate”.
“It’s Andy Burnham’s fight in Makerfield, and it is Labour’s fight for the soul of our country.”
Mr Streeting said his resignation had been an “emotional wrench”, but concluded his speech citing late bowel cancer campaigner Dame Deborah James in saying that it was “with no regrets and with rebellious hope that I have left the Government”.
“The Labour Party was elected to deliver real change. We still can.”
Mr Streeting has made clear he intends to stand in any leadership contest.
Dire local election results, calls from Labour MPs for him to go, and a slew of resignations from the junior government ranks last week threw Sir Keir’s political future into doubt.
But the prime minister has insisted he will not “walk away” from Downing Street.
No 10 declined to say whether Sir Keir, who has said he supports Mr Burnham “100 per cent” in the by-election, would personally be knocking on doors in the Greater Manchester constituency.
Asked whether the prime minister’s backing of the mayor meant he supported his policy positions, Sir Keir’s political spokesperson said: “Andy Burnham may speak as himself in that by-election as the candidate, obviously the prime minister speaks for the government.”
If Mr Burnham were the leader of Labour, the party could reverse its polling woes and beat Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in a general election, according to a More in Common survey.
