Labour Wins Makerfield By-Election as Reform UK Finishes Second

Andy Burnham won the Makerfield by-election for Labour on Thursday, increasing the party's majority over Reform UK in a seat the party has held for more than a century. Reform UK candidate Rob Kenyon finished more than 9,000 votes behind Burnham. Nigel Farage said he was disappointed with Reform UK's performance.

He stated the party received just shy of 16,000 votes when he had expected 18,000. Farage blamed the result on voters seeking to remove Sir Keir Starmer from Downing Street. He said the contest became a "vote Burnham, get Starmer out" election.

Farage also attributed part of the shortfall to Restore Britain, which captured around 7% of the vote after polling at around 3% nationwide. He said a couple of thousand voters who would normally have supported Reform UK chose Restore Britain instead. Restore Britain finished third in its first Westminster contest.

The party was registered in March and was founded by former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe. Its candidate was Rebecca Shepherd. Farage described Reform UK as the main challenger party to the left and urged Restore Britain voters to back Reform UK instead.

He said the party had been "slightly hoist with our own petard" after framing earlier elections as a chance to end Starmer's premiership. Farage compared Burnham's local popularity to that of Boris Johnson when he was mayor of London. He said Burnham won with a vote share that nobody could quite see coming.

The Conservatives won Aberdeen South from the SNP, while the SNP held Arbroath and Broughty Ferry.