Nigel Farage issues coping statement of excuses after crushing by-election defeat

Farage took aim at Restore voters and claimed they wanted the same thing as Labour voters anyway

Burnham was declared winner of the Makerfield by-election early this morning (Friday, 19 June), paving the way for a Labour leadership challenge.

The by-election in Makerfield, Greater Manchester, was triggered in mid-May after Labour MP Josh Simons stepped down amid discontent in the party.

The idea was to allow current Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham a way back into parliament and take on Keir Starmer in a leadership contest to ultimately become prime minister.

Now, the path has been made clear for Burnham, and it is likely a leadership challenge will soon follow.

A clear Labour win

Seeing the current diverse, political landscape in the UK, initial polls made the vote in Makerfield look like it could be a tightly run race.

Many polls had Burnham winning by only a few points with Restore potentially stopping Reform from coming out on top.

However, the reality was a lot clearer than that.

Labour won 55% of the vote, gathering 24,927 votes while Robert Kenyon of Reform who managed 15,696 votes (34.5%).

Fellow right-wingers Restore were slated to be an issue for Reform, with some claiming they could end up splitting the vote - however, this was far from the case.

The party candidate Rebecca Shepherd managed just 3,111, barely enough to make a small dent in the 9,000 vote gap between Labour and Reform.

The Tories managed 997 votes while the Greens just 308 and the Lib Dems 163.

The turnout was 58.75%

How have parties and their leaders responded?

In the immediate wake of his win, Andy Burnham gave his thoughts during his acceptance speech early this morning.

The newly-elected Makerfield MP thanked those who have worked on the election, and his fellow candidates for a "civil debate".

He said: "Everyone knows that politics isn't working, everyone can feel that the country isn't where it should be.

"Tonight could, just could, be the turning point."

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Keir Starmer congratulated Burnham on his win on X.

He said: "Congratulations, Andy Burnham, Labour’s new MP for Makerfield.

"Voters chose Labour’s campaign of hope and optimism over division and hate."

Nigel Farage has since given his thoughts on the results, issuing a 94-second long video full of excuses.

He opened the video by saying the Makerfield by-election was an "emphatic win" for Andy Burnham "with a vote share nobody could quite see coming".

He then added that And Burnham is a "popular local mayor" comparing him to Boris Johnson as a way to explain his win over Reform by more than 9,000 votes.

Farage then went on to open his next point with "what really happened here..." - the worldwide recognised symbol for 'trying to cope with the crushing weight of defeat'.

Farage drew parallels between his party's and Andy Burnham's campaigns which both concerned the eventual removal from power of Keir Starmer.

The Reform leader claimed his party was "slightly hoist with our own petard".

If claiming that his party wanted what Burnham voters wanted too wasn't enough, Farage then took aim at Restore voters asking them "what do you want?"

He continued: "We are the challenger party to the left in this country and I would urge you to think again, I really, really would."

Farage went on to address the other by-election going on in the country, noting the Tory win in Scotland, but claiming they only remain popular in small pockets around the country.

Conservatives win in Aberdeen South

While Labour and Burnham stole the limelight in Makerfield, the Conservatives were also picking up seats, winning the by-election for Aberdeen South.

This comes after Stephen Flynn left the House of Commons following his election to the Scottish Parliament.

The Tories won with 14,308 votes to the SNP's 8,258.

Meanwhile, the SNP held their seat in the Arbroath and Broughty Ferry by-election which saw the party get 9,802 votes to the Tories' 4,524 in second.