Makerfield, Thursday 18 June 2026

Andy Burnham is the Mayor of Greater Manchester, a position he has held since 2017 and to which he was re-elected in 2021 and 2024. Before becoming mayor he served as Labour MP for Leigh from 2001 to 2017 and held senior roles in the Blair and Brown governments, including Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Culture Secretary and Health Secretary.

Burnham is contesting Makerfield to return to Parliament after Josh Simons stood down on 14 May 2026 to allow him to seek the seat. He stood unsuccessfully for the Labour leadership in 2010 and 2015. Polling in 2026 has consistently shown him to be the most popular senior Labour figure among Labour Party members, and he is widely tipped as a future Labour leader.

Howling Laud Hope, born Alan Hope, has been leader of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party since the death of its founder Screaming Lord Sutch in 1999. The Loonies have contested parliamentary by-elections since the early 1980s as a form of political satire.

Hope is a publican and was formerly the deputy mayor of Fleet in Hampshire. He has stood in more than thirty by-elections.

Rebecca Shepherd is a local businesswoman standing for Restore Britain, the political party founded by former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe after he left Reform in 2025. The Makerfield by-election is the first parliamentary contest in which Restore Britain has fielded a candidate.

Limited public information has been released about her background. This bio will be expanded if and when she or the party releases further detail.

Robert Kenyon is a self-employed plumber and gas engineer who was elected as a Reform UK councillor for Bryn with Ashton-in-Makerfield North on Wigan Council in 2026. He is a former British Army reservist and worked for six years as a specialist technician in the NHS in Lancashire, including through the pandemic.

Kenyon stood for Reform UK in Makerfield at the 2024 general election, finishing second to Josh Simons with 31.8% of the vote and reducing Labour’s majority to 5,399. Standing again in 2026, he has been described by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage as the party’s standard-bearer in what Farage called a “David versus Goliath battle” against Andy Burnham.