2026 Makerfield by-election

A by-election for the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of Makerfield took place on 18 June 2026 following the resignation of Josh Simons, Member of Parliament (MP) for the Labour Party. Amid a leadership crisis in the Labour Party, Simons resigned to allow Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, to stand for Parliament, in order to challenge the incumbent Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the leadership. It was the first time since the 1965 Leyton by-election that a by-election had been triggered specifically to provide a vacancy for an individual not currently in Parliament. Burnham won the by-election with almost 25,000 votes and a majority of over 9,200 votes, exceeding expectations from opinion polls which projected that he would win by a narrow margin over Reform UK. In the event, Reform considerably underperformed compared with its showing in the 2026 local elections, while tactical squeezing of the Liberal Democrat and Green Party vote was considered to help Burnham. Two other by-elections, in Aberdeen South and Arbroath and Broughty Ferry, took place on the same day. Following Starmer's resignation four days after the by-election, Burnham was elected unopposed to the Labour Party leadership.

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