A week is a long time in politics, or so the old adage goes. Seven days ago, Andy Burnham wasn’t even an MP. But now he has triumphantly returned to Westminster – and his tilt at the top job looks like it could serve as an electoral lifeline for the Labour Party.
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Poll featuring Andy Burnham-led Labour Party puts them on top
The pollsters at More In Common have published their latest findings, asking the general public to consider how they’d vote if a General Election was held tomorrow. Participants were told to assume the Labour leader is Andy Burnham – rather than the outgoing Keir Starmer.
The results are stark. After months of struggling to break past the 20% mark, a Burnham-led Labour Party gains six percentage points. Though it is a modest improvement, it would be enough to take the governing party above Reform – who have been routinely topping opinion polls for the past year.
The figures show that 27% of those surveyed would back Andy Burnham’s Labour, which is marginally more than the 26% sticking with Nigel Farage’s Reform. The Tories fetch around 23%, with the Liberal Democrats (10%) and Green Party (8%) trailing behind.
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Following Sir Keir’s resignation this week, Burnham has become the red-hot favourite to serve as the next prime minister. He will take part in an upcoming leadership race, with Al Cairns – the recently resigned defence minister – also considering if he should throw his hat in the ring.
Luke Tryl, director of More In Common UK, shared the results to his social media pages on Wednesday. He noted that the uptick in support for the departing Manchester mayor comes largely from undecided voters. Strikingly, it also appears Andy Burnham beats Nigel Farage comfortably in a head-to-head.
“Looking at voter flows, Labour under Andy Burnham particularly gain from undecided voters, Lib Dems and the Greens. He also changes the outcome of the ‘preferred PM’ question, moving one point ahead of Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch.”
“The picture is even more stark on head to heads between potential PM candidates. Burnham bests Starmer 67% to 33%. Although Starmer beats Farage 53-47, Andy Burnham beats him by a significant margin of 62-38.” | Luke Tryl