The UK is set to get a new, very different PM. How different? Well, he has a personality

June 21, 2026 — 1:50pm

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In normal times, a byelection swing of nearly 10 per cent to the government would be joyous news for a struggling prime minister. But these are far from normal times in Britain.

Andy Burnham’s stronger-than-expected result at the Makerfield byelection last Thursday was received with anything but delight at 10 Downing Street. It was almost certainly the final nail in the political coffin of Sir Keir Starmer, less than two years after he led Labour to its greatest victory.

By returning Burnham – Starmer’s declared leadership rival – to Westminster, the public made an emphatic statement that they wanted the prime minister replaced. Within hours of the result, Starmer defiantly reiterated that he would not go quietly; he would fight the expected leadership challenge. But even as he spoke, Labour MPs were lining up like llamas at a petting zoo to tell TV interviewers that their leader should go. By lunchtime, 98 of the 403 Labour MPs had publicly called on Starmer to stand aside. I’m told many more, who kept silent, thought the same. As Boris Johnson said about his own downfall, when the herd moves, nothing can stop it. The Labour herd was stampeding.

Had his rival’s victory been a narrow one, the prime minister might conceivably have been in a position to fight on. But the size of Burnham’s win turbocharged the political momentum beyond the capacity of Starmer’s rapidly shrinking band of loyalists to arrest it.

Burnham secured 54 per cent in a field........

© The Age