Andy Burnham set out his plans for government as he launched his Makerfield by-election campaign with a dig at Sir Keir Starmer. The politician declared: “We need to be better.”

He called for the biggest programme of council house building since World War 2, lower train fares and improvements to schools. In a criticism of Sir Keir’s leadership, Mr Burnham said: “I know my own party needs to change. We need to be better than we have been.

“A vote for me in this by-election is a vote to change Labour.” And he said the voters of Makerfield would get “the party back they used to know”.

Mr Burnham, currently Mayor of Greater Manchester, was launching his bid to return to Parliament at a rally outside a sports and social club in the North-west constituency.

He is expected to launch a leadership challenge to depose Sir Keir as Labour leader and Prime Minister if he wins the by-election, but faces a challenge from Reform, which says it aims to pull off a “shock” victory.

Mr Burnham called for change to the education and housing systems, saying the country needed the biggest programme of council house building since World War 2.

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.

Insisting hope was “in the air”, Mr Burnham said: “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.”

The Mayor was joined by a string of Labour politicians for his campaign launch. They included Labour MPs Jonathan Reynolds, Kim Johnson, Barry Gardiner, Ian Byrne, Chris Webb and Rebecca Long-Bailey.

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

Pollsters have signalled that having Mr Burnham running will significantly boost Labour’s chances of retaining the seat, but it could still prove a tough contest against Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Josh Simons, the Labour MP who stood down to make way for Mr Burnham, won in 2024 by just 5,399 votes, while Reform comfortably won every ward in the constituency at this month’s local elections.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats unveiled Stockport councillor Jake Austin as their candidate to contest the seat.

Mr Austin said the people of Makerfield “deserve so much more than the failing Labour Government or the divisive politics of Reform UK”.

On Thursday, the Green Party announced that its candidate, Chris Kennedy, had withdrawn from the race just hours after being selected.

The party said Mr Kennedy had withdrawn for “personal and family reasons”, but it later emerged that he had shared posts on social media claiming an attack on Jewish ambulances in north London had been a “false flag” operation.

A Green spokesperson said Mr Kennedy had deleted and apologised for the posts, but added the party stood by its previous statement about the reasons for his withdrawal.