Andy Burnham has been handed a direct route back into Parliament after Josh Simons announced his resignation as MP for Makerfield in Greater Manchester, explicitly standing aside to allow the Manchester Mayor to contest the seat and mount a Labour leadership challenge.
Simons, a former minister, made the announcement on Thursday in a statement that amounted to a full-throated endorsement of Burnham and a stinging verdict on the state of the Labour Party under Keir Starmer. “For decades, Westminster has overseen the managed decline of towns like mine,” he said. “We have talked big, then acted small, stuck in a politics of incrementalism that cannot meet the moment.”
He left no doubt about his reasons for stepping down. “I am standing aside so that Andy Burnham can return to his home, fight to re-enter Parliament, and if elected, drive the change our country is crying out for,” Simons said, adding that Labour had “one last chance” to deliver for working people.
The resignation clears one of the most significant practical obstacles to Burnham’s leadership ambitions. The Manchester Mayor has not held a Commons seat since entering local politics and would require a by-election to return to Westminster. Makerfield, which sits in the Greater Manchester area Burnham has represented as Mayor, provides him with a natural and credible contest to fight.
Simons acknowledged the personal weight of the decision, noting that his family’s newborn son had recently been treated at Wigan Infirmary. “This is my family’s home,” he said. “But we all must make choices and in recent days I found myself with a difficult one: defend the status quo or step forward and act. I have made my choice.”
The development significantly raises the stakes in what is already a fast-moving leadership crisis. Burnham now has a potential route into Parliament, though the timing of any by-election and whether Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee will keep nominations open long enough for him to participate remain critical questions. His allies have previously indicated he would need the nominations process to remain open until at least the end of June to have a realistic chance of standing.
