UK council sets June 18 by-election which may determine next PM

The special vote will take place after the area's current Labour MP Josh Simons resigned to make way for long-time Labour politician Andy Burnham to try to return to parliament.

If Burnham, who has already been out campaigning in the Makerfield constituency in England's northwest, is successful in becoming an MP then he is widely expected to challenge Starmer for the leadership.

"The poll will take place on Thursday, 18th June 2026," Wigan Council said in a notice.

Starmer has been clinging onto power since disastrous local and regional election results earlier this month in which Labour lost scores of councillors to the hard-right Reform UK party and left-wing Greens.

His health minister Wes Streeting resigned, as did four junior ministers, and approximately 90 Labour MPs have called for Starmer to quit or lay out a timetable for his departure.

More than 100 Labour lawmakers have spoken out against trying to change leader, while Starmer has been backed by most of his cabinet, highlighting divisions in the ruling party.

Burnham, presently Greater Manchester mayor, is popular on the party's centre-left and said this week that a vote for him would be a vote to "change Labour".

He also published a campaign video in which he called for a "new path for Britain".

But Burnham, a Labour MP and former minister between 2001 and 2017, faces a tough test against Reform UK's candidate Robert Kenyon, a local plumber.

Ex-MP Simons won the seat by just over 5,000 votes at the 2024 general election, while Reform comfortably won every ward in the constituency at the local elections on May 7.

Streeting, 43, whose support stems from the right of the Labour party, has said he will run in any leadership contest.