Politicians want our vote, and have catchy slogans to persuade us. But sometimes a bit of fact-checking can punch a hole in their statements, and Makerfield by-election voters need the truth to be able to decide who will get their vote.
The Makerfield by-election is due to take place on June 18 2026 and politicians have ramped up their statements to the public in an attempt to woo the voters to vote for them, however upon closer scrutiny some of these claims seem dubious at best. North West Bylines have taken a closer look at some of the claims being made.
Burnham tried to stand for 26 different seats, Makerfield is bottom of his list
On 9 June Reform candidate Rob Kenyon posted on his Facebook page:
Andy Burnham could have stood in Makerfield in 2024 but chose not to.
He apparently tried to stand in 26 different seats, including Gorton & Denton, Bootle and Warrington.
We are bottom of Burnham’s list
26 different seats? Mr Burnham was MP for Leigh from 2001-2017, Greater Manchester Mayor from 2017-2026, and in 2026 wanted to stand for Gorton and Denton but was blocked, and now stands as a candidate for MP for Makerfield, an area he lives a stone’s throw away from and part of which he represented as MP for 16 years. Furthermore, as GM Mayor, he was the mayor of the Makerfield area as well, as it comes under Greater Manchester. Bottom of the list?
So when would he have wanted to stand for all those other seats, and why??
“Andy Burnham accused of ‘chilling’ attack on free speech as his firefighters are warned over their backing for Reform UK”
The Daily Mail published an article about Manchester’s Fire and Rescue Service supposedly having had ‘words’ with local firefighters who stood as candidates for councillors for Reform UK, advising them that core values and professional behaviour of the Fire and Rescue service have to be displayed at all times by firefighters, which includes a culture of inclusivity.
As Burnham is the GM Fire Commissioner, it seems the Daily Mail holds him directly responsible for the decisions of the Fire and Rescue Service bosses.
However in the article there is nothing to suggest Burnham had anything to do with the ‘words’ or the emails about this, and neither is there any evidence Burnham knew about this.
The National Firefighters Union has a tradition of backing Labour at elections, and they feel that Reform ‘poses a direct threat to workers rights’. And that may well have been the reason for the actions the Daily Mail blames on Burnham.
Burnham could have stopped the rape gangs if he had called for an enquiry
A claim often heard from local people. But Burnham DID commission a review, within months of taking office as Mayor, which resulted in Operation Green Jacket and ultimately in police and court action.
Mass immigration caused the housing crisis
Farage: immigration is the real reason for the housing crisis.
Asylum seekers are ineligible for social housing. In England, over 1mn homes are NOT in permanent use, with less than 400,000 people classed as homeless. Of those, over 260,000 are long-term unoccupied (more than six months). And to house the people needing a home, only 113,00 are needed. This tells us there is no HOUSING crisis, but a HOUSING MANAGEMENT crisis instead.
Many properties that used to be council houses are now privately owned, so the council house market has dropped drastically since the Right To Buy scheme was introduced in 1980.
If all longterm empty premises were brought back into use, there would be a choice of properties for people to live in.
Mass migration is the cause of congestion in Ashton in Makerfield
Rebecca Shepley, Restore Britain candidate for Makerfield, apparently blames ‘mass immigration’ for congestion in Ashton in Makerfield.
Let’s look at this claim…
The population of Ashton has declined since 2001. In 2001, there were 27,000 residents in Ashton, in 2011: 27,511; in 2021 Ashton had 26,380 residents and in 2024 there were 26,429 residents.
Immigration: in the 2021 census it was recorded that 3% of Ashton residents do not identify as British, compared to 16.8% overall in England and Wales.
So the small number of non-British people living in Ashton have not caused any increase in population, the roads are not congested because of any increase in population, whatever the nationality.
Robert Kenyon, Reform candidate, will fight to save Ashton Library
Kenyon made a post on X (formerly Twitter) that he would fight to save Ashton Library from closure.
Ashton Library was at threat of permanent closure, as after years of neglect, the building was in a very poor state. Previous MP Josh Simons worked with the Ashton councillors and especially Labour councillor Christopher Ready, and local residents.
A week before Kenyon stated he would do what he could for the Library it was announced that Simons and the local team had achieved their goal, the building is being renovated and will reopen in about six months time.
Reform will put a stop to donations from abroad
Reform UK co-director Zia Yusuf put a statement on X (formerly Twitter) that foreign intervention in UK elections will be stopped under Reform, implying that they will put an end to donations from abroad.
A bold claim, given that the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, received donations from Thailand based Christopher Harborne to the tune of £5mn before he became an MP allegedly to pay for his security (or for Brexit, or for something else). And according to Desmog Farage has accepted £675,000 from foreign based donors since becoming an MP. US based Elon Musk promised to donate to Reform UK in the past, although he now says he backs Restore Britain. Christopher Harborne remains Reform’s single largest donor having donated £22mn to the party.
Nigel Farage has declared quite a few foreign donations for the past year, but according to Farage the £5mn donation from a crypto billionaire does not need declaring.
Given the above, are all these donations going to stop if Reform were to come into power?
‘Remember ULEZ Manchester? That Andy cost us £100mn’
Despite the above claim made by many ion the streets of Makerfield, Burnham never had a decision-making role in ULEZ or CAZ. The process was already underway when he became Mayor in 2017, and was instigated by the Conservative government. At the time Burnham became mayor, Andrea Leadsom was environment minister, soon to be replaced by Michael Gove. The final decision to implement CAZ was made by the local councillors of the 10 Greater Manchester councils.
In fact Burnham rejected the idea of charging drivers of non-commercial vehicles such as motorhomes, camper vans and horse boxes, and ultimately stopped the process altogether in favour of using more electric buses throughout the Greater Manchester area, thus reducing all over emissions. So no, the total cost of ULEZ or CAZ was not because of Burnham, but without his intervention non-commercial drivers would have had to change cars or pay out every day.
‘Fake running’
The Daily Mail and Dan Wootton made a big deal of cameras catching Andy Burnham going for a run to collect his car from where he parked the day before three miles away. Wootton went so far as to call it ‘fake’.
However, as Burnham explained on social media, he runs regularly, has a habit of leaving his car at the train station carpark from where he commutes to work, jogging home and jogging back to the station the next day to pick his car up.
Later on Burnham participated in the 10K AJ Bell Greater Manchester run and posted his timesheet on X, saying ‘Have that Daily Mail with your “fake running” stories!’
So all in all it appears that the claims of Burnham’s “fake” jogging are in fact fake themselves.
Burnham will make Louise Haigh chancellor
Zia Yusuf claimed on X that should Burnham win Makerfield he would make Louise Haigh chancellor
If Burnham becomes Makerfield MP, he then may or may not start a leadership challenge for the Labour party which he may or may not win. Were he to become PM, he may or may not pick Louise Haigh as chancellor. A lot of uncertainties, too many really to state as fact. Crystal balls are notoriously unreliable. Making this claim to be leaning more towards suggestion than fact.
Green Party canvasser mauled by Restore Britain supporters
A satire account on X formerly Twitter posted an image claiming to be of a green party canvasser who has been mauled by a group of Restore Britain supporters whilst out campaigning. The post has been seen 2,511 times and 9 times. The image used was actually a mock-up image of Kim Kardashian that was used in 2015 for the #stopviolenceagainstwomen campaign. The image in question is obviously fake and comes from a parody/satire account however this is exactly how a lot of fake stories start.
St Mary’s Church in Ince now a mosque
Cllr Rob Kenyon, himself vying to become Makerfield MP, has claimed that “St Mary’s Church in Ince once served the people of Makerfield. Now it’s a mosque.”
The claim that an old church building is being appropriated for a different faith and thus somehow would not serve local people anymore.
St Mary’s in Ince has been empty for 5 years and was put up at auction twice but not sold, before it was acquired for a community hub, with its main use now being a food bank, and there is a prayer room for ALL faiths. It is sometimes said to be a ‘mosque’ but this is NOT how the space was meant or set up to be.
Sounds like it will be serving all the people of Ince for years to come!
Robert Kenyon “born and raised” in Makerfield
The Reform campaign makes a big deal of Kenyon allegedly being ‘born and raised’ in Makerfield.
However he was actually born and raised in Haydock, which comes under St Helens, Merseyside. A different county even. The same county as Burnham was born in. However Mr Kenyon is sticking to the story.
“no such thing as Islamaphobia”
A group of 26 Labour MPs and 1 Independent report Reform 2025 Ltd to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission for alleged Islamophobia.
Lee Anderson tweeted: “There is no such thing as Islamaphobia. It’s a made up word spouted out by educated idiots in Parliament who are scared of losing their seats.”
Fact check:
Oxford English Dictionary: The first occurrence of the word Islamophobia in literature was in 1932. So the word has existed for almost 100 years AT LEAST.
Also: in 2024 after his suspension from the Tory Party, Lee Anderson stated: “I will continue to support the government’s efforts to call out extremism in all its forms – be that anti-Semitism or Islamophobia.“
Maybe spelling a word correctly helps when you look it up?
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