Reform launches campaign to keep Starmer in office

Reform UK has spent a considerable amount of time arguing that we need to get Keir Starmer out of office. Now, there’s a very real chance this could happen – specifically via the challenge from Andy Burnham. Because politics is a strange game, however, Reform is now doing everything it can to stop Burnham from winning – hence the party’s new campaign:

Anywhere will do for Andy.

This expensive by-election is all about his own personal ambition. pic.twitter.com/qydZC7ZVSm

— Reform UK (@reformparty_uk) May 18, 2026

In other words, Reform is campaigning to keep Starmer in power.

Starmer in!

The first thing to note about the above is that Burnham and the suitcase seem to be on different horizontal planes. This is a nitpick, we know, but it does suggest Reform has hired a particularly lazy graphic designer (that or all the good ones refused to work with the party).

Getting to the important stuff, you’ll notice the suitcase lists all the places in which Burnham was rumoured to be running – specifically:

• Norwich South.
• Rusholme.
• Makerfield.

We know Burnham was rumoured to run in these constituencies because we closely follow politics; your average voter, however, will have zero idea what this is referencing. There’s also an easy comeback, because the following is the list of the constituencies where Farage ran to be an MP:

• Eastleigh (1994).
• Salisbury (1997).
• Bexhill and Battle (2001).
• South Thanet (2005).
• Bromley and Chislehurst (2006).
• Buckingham (2010)
• South Thanet again (2015).
• Clacton (2024).

And Farage really doesn’t like it when you point out that he lost in seven of these areas:

Nigel Farage really didn't like it when Nick Robinson pointed out that he had ran 7 times to become an MP & lost 7 times. 🤣

"I'm sick to death of your condescending tone"#r4today pic.twitter.com/cRmPI8wA16

— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) July 26, 2023

It’s ‘did you know Burnham was rumoured to run in Rusholme‘ versus ‘Farage has lost in more constituencies than a stinkbug has legs‘.

Given this, you might say Farage is the worst person in the world to be making this argument. And the same is true of Reform’s other campaign ad, which is that Burnham will run ‘anywhere’:

EXCL: Reform will launch its attack ad blitz on Andy Burnham today. I can exclusively reveal the first set of ads the party will plaster across social media. The graphics attempt to paint Burnham as a career opportunist putting personal ambitions above the people of Makerfield.… pic.twitter.com/X6r0qfUOAg

— Noa Hoffman (@hoffman_noa) May 18, 2026

Funnily enough, there are eight segments on that wheel, which means you could literally assign one to each of the races Farage ran in.

Weak sauce

This all seems like fairly timid stuff from Reform. Early rumours suggested the party would focus on Burnham having previously voiced support for rejoining the EU. This would make sense, because the Makerfield constituency voted overwhelmingly to leave. The fact that Reform hasn’t jumped two-feet in on this suggests the party no longer thinks Brexit is the make-or-break issue it once was:

Makerfield voted 65% Leave in 2016 (the 75th most Leave seat). Over the next few weeks, there’ll be plenty of news coverage about Brexit (reset negotiations, 10th anniversary). Andy Burnham is a rejoiner. If Reform can’t make Brexit work for them here, it’ll tell us a lot.

— David Gauke (@DavidGauke) May 15, 2026

There are good reasons to criticise Burnham that Reform is ignoring. He’s already said Labour shouldn’t pursue proportional representation in this parliament, and there’s reason to suspect he wouldn’t pursue full re-nationalisation. Reform won’t pull him up here, however, because Farage & co. are all Thatcherite privatisation fetishists who want the scam to continue.

Featured image via Getty Images (Dan Kitwood) / Getty Images (WPA Pool)