Reform UK leader says his insurgent party is now in with a ‘serious shout’ of winning the crunch ballot
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (Image: Getty)
Nigel Farage predicted that Andy Burnham being blocked in the Gorton and Denton by-election has “massively” boosted Reform UK’s chances. The Reform leader said he believed his party would have struggled if the Greater Manchester Mayor had stood for Labour. But Mr Burnham has been barred from becoming Labour’s candidate by the party’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC), including the Prime Minister. Speaking after a Reform rally today, Mr Farage said: “Burnham would have galvanised the anti-Starmer vote.
“He’d have pushed the turnout up, and I think it would have been very difficult for us to beat him. I’m being absolutely frank about that… we might have come a good second. Now he’s not there. I think that the anti-Starmer vote will coalesce around us, so I think our chances have improved massively overnight.”
Mr Farage added: “Is it a pushover? Of course it’s not; it’s rather like Runcorn.
“It’s one of those traditional safe Labour seats with a big majority and it’ll probably be very close, but are we now in with a serious shout? Absolutely.”
Critics have accused the Prime Minister of blocking Mr Burnham over fears he could face a leadership challenge from him if he returned to Westminster.
Sir Keir insisted that allowing Mr Burnham to run in the parliamentary by-election would “divert our resources” from Labour’s campaigns in the May elections.
Andy Burnham has been blocked from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election (Image: Getty)
Speaking during a visit to a health centre in Wimbledon, the Prime Minister said: “We have really important elections already across England for local councils, very important elections in Wales for the government there, and very important elections in Scotland for the Scottish government that will affect millions of people.
“And we’re out campaigning on the cost of living, and they’re very important elections. We need all of our focus on those elections.
“Andy Burnham’s doing a great job as the Mayor of Manchester, but having an election for the Mayor of Manchester when it’s not necessary would divert our resources away from the elections that we must have, that we must fight and win, and resources, whether that’s money or people, need to be focused on the elections that we must have, not elections that we don’t have to have. And that was the basis of the NEC decision.”
