![\"Rupert](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/rupert-lowe.jpg\")
<\/p>\nRupert Lowe has confirmed that Restore Britain will field a candidate in the Makerfield by-election.<\/p>\n
The party aims to take on Andy Burnham and Reform UK, who are set to go head-to-head in the Manchester constituency.<\/p>\n
If Mr Burnham is successful in the by-election, it is expected he will challenge Sir Keir Starmer in a leadership contest.<\/p>\n
Mr Lowe has not confirmed the Restore Britain candidate. <\/p>\n
Taking to X this afternoon, Mr Lowe said: “Restore Britain will be standing a candidate in the Makerfield by-election. <\/p>\n
“There is overwhelming demand from our local members to do so, and I entirely agree. <\/p>\n
“Our campaign has already started, and we aim to win thousands and thousands of votes. <\/p>\n
“More news very soon.”<\/p>\n
Rupert Lowe has confirmed that Restore Britain will field a candidate in the Makerfield by-election<\/p>\n
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Labour MP Josh Simons announced he will resign from the seat to give the Greater Manchester Mayor a pathway to return to Westminster and potentially challenge for the national Labour leadership.<\/p>\n
The Party’s National Executive Committee opted against blocking Mr Burnham’s candidacy.<\/p>\n
The NEC, the Labour Party’s governing body, previously blocked Mr Burnham from contesting the Gorton & Denton by-election in February, citing concerns about the 56-year-old vacating his metro mayor position.<\/p>\n
The Greater Manchester Mayor will now need to put his name forward to stand as Labour’s Makerfield candidate.<\/p>\n
![\"Andy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778954181_729_andy-burnham.jpg\")
The party aims to take on Andy Burnham and Reform UK<\/p>\n
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Applications will close on May 18, with the selection process concluding on May 21.<\/p>\n
A Labour Party spokesman said: “Labour’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee has today given permission to Andy Burnham to stand in the candidate selection process in the forthcoming by-election for the Makerfield constituency.”<\/p>\n
The People’s Channel has been told by Labour sources that the Government will announce next week on the timetable for the Makerfield by-election.<\/p>\n
Labour MPs have already been voicing their endorsement of Mr Burnham as the challenger to Sir Keir, with former health secretary Wes Streeting calling him one of the “best players on the pitch”.<\/p>\n
![\"Andy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778954182_707_andy-burnham.jpg\")
If Mr Burnham is successful in the by-election, it is expected he will challenge Sir Keir Starmer in a leadership contest<\/p>\n
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He said: “We need our best players on the pitch. There is no doubt that Andy Burnham is one of them. The Makerfield by-election will be tough. Votes will need to be earned. Andy is the best chance of winning and that should override factional advantage or propping up one person.”<\/p>\n
Reform UK has yet to announce its candidate.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of this month, Restore Britain achieved a perfect 100 per cent success rate by winning all 10 seats it contested in the local elections.<\/p>\n
The party successfully denied Reform UK the three extra seats it required to take majority control of Norfolk County Council, leaving the local authority in a state of No Overall Control. <\/p>\n
Following the results, leader Rupert Lowe announced intentions to field Restore Britain candidates nationwide in future local and general elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rupert Lowe has confirmed that Restore Britain will field a candidate in the Makerfield by-election. The party aims…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":964958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[113921,748,393,4884,528,2465,12,1144,285,386,712,16,3106,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-964957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-across-the-uk","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-labour-party","15":"tag-manchester","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-northern-ireland","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-reform-uk","20":"tag-scotland","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-uk-politics","23":"tag-united-kingdom","24":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116585548026378997","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=964957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/964958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=964957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=964957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=964957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}