From Coal-Mining to Kingmaking, Makerfield Decides UK’s Future

An aerial view of a high street in Ashton-in-Makerfield, UK, on May 15.Photographer: Gary Oakley/Getty Images

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May 16, 2026 at 5:01 AM UTC

For Andy Burnham, Makerfield is starting to look a lot like Frank Sinatra’s New York. If he can make it there, he’ll make it anywhere.

That’s because this area of northern England is about to provide a crucial test of the Manchester mayor’s ability to repel Reform UK. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s own failure to halt the right wingers’ advance has his party openly baying to replace him with Burnham, the most popular man in the Labour Party.