Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, in the north-west of England, will succeed Keir Starmer after receiving the backing of lawmakers in the governing Labour party.
Burnham won a crucial by-election, the equivalent of a US special election, in Makerfield, northwest England, just last month which had been triggered with the sole purpose of allowing him to run for the leadership of Labour as a sitting member of parliament.
Less than two years after Labour won a landslide election, Starmer’s authority crumbled, while Nigel Farage’s populist right-wing party Reform UK and the populist left-wing Green Party have surged in opinion polls. Only…