Andy Burnham latest: Makerfield voters ‘will write script’ for change in British politics, Manchester mayor says

Andy Burnham has not shied away from positioning his by-election fight as a stepping stone for an overhaul of the Labour Party – potentially under his leadership.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester said he hasn’t “done the traditional by-election thing in front of you today”, by criticising his opponents.

“I know my own party needs to change,” he said. “We need to be better than we have been. We have not been good enough, and I want to leave people in no doubt today – a vote for me in this by-election campaign is a vote to change Labour.”

He went on to say a vote for him is a vote to give people the “Party back that they used to know”, which is “solidly on the side of working class people and working class communities”.

Andy Burnham set out his connections to the local community as he launched his campaign in Makerfield.

He said: “I love this place. But what I have inside is a burning sense of injustice that the proud communities of this place face a Westminster system that puts them at the bottom of the list when they should be at the top of the list.”

He said the by-election was a “clarion call for change”.

He called for change to the education and housing systems, saying the country needed the biggest programme of council house building since the Second World War.

He said the price of an anytime return to London from Wigan North Western was £364.

He said: “We need to use rail renationalisation to reduce those train fares and make them affordable to people again.”

He also called for changes to the care system.

Andy Burnham has been keen to really pitch himself as a local man as he kicks of his Makerfield campaign launch.

At the top of his speech, the Mayor of Greater Manchester made sure to highlight his links to the area, as he reminisced getting his first coach to an Everton away game without his dad in 1984.

He went on: “I love it so much that I brought my own family up here. I live here. I have lived here for 25 years. My home is two miles over there.

“I could walk to this campaign centre from where I live. My three kids went to a school just down there in Ashton.”

The Greater Manchester mayor has taken aim at Westminster, accusing it of ignoring the north of England.

He told his supporters: “This by-election will force Westminster to focus on the places it usually looks past.”

Andy Burnham said his campaign would place “political parties on the hook” to do more for Makerfield.

He said: “We’ve had 40 years of policies that have hurt the high streets of this constituency, policies that took away the good jobs that were once in these communities and done nothing to replace them.”

The Greater Manchester mayor has taken aim at Westminster, accusing it of ignoring the north of England.

He told his supporters: “This by-election will force Westminster to focus on the places it usually looks past.”

Andy Burnham said his campaign would place “political parties on the hook” to do more for Makerfield.

He said: “We’ve had 40 years of policies that have hurt the high streets of this constituency, policies that took away the good jobs that were once in these communities and done nothing to replace them.”

Andy Burnham has kicked off his by-election campaign in Makerfield by declaring it is a “change by-election”.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester said “hope is in the air” as he began his speech in front of a crowd of cheering Labour activists.

“This is not business as usual. This is not more of the same. This is a change by election politics in this country. British politics is tired. It needs a new script, and over the next four weeks, the people of Makerfield are going to write that script, and it’s great that they’re going to get that chance,” he said.

“This by-election will force Westminster to focus on the places it usually looks past.”

Andy Burnham has arrived in Makerfield to give a speech to mark the beginning of his campaign to return to Westminster.

Andy Burnham has arrived in Makerfield to give a speech to mark the beginning of his campaign to return to Westminster.

Among those in attendance at Andy Burnham’s campaign launch for the Makerfield by-election are Labour MPs Jonathan Reynolds, Kim Johnson, Barry Gardiner, Ian Byrne, Chris Webb and Rebecca Long-Bailey.

Also showing their support are Liverpool metro mayor Steve Rotheram and interim leader of Welsh Labour Ken Skates.