Nigel Farage will 'throw everything' at election to beat Andy Burnham

Nigel Farage today vowed that Reform would 'throw everything' at the by-election to defeat Andy Burnham.

The party leader also confidently predicted that his party were 'favourites' to emerge victorious.

Reacting to Mr Burnham's announcement, Mr Farage told the Mail on Sunday: 'If the King in the North thinks he can waltz back down to Westminster; he's got another thing coming.

'We will throw everything at this contest.'

There have already suggestions that Zia Yusuf, the party's high-profile head of policy, could be the party's candidate.

However, Mr Farage confirmed on Saturday that the party had yet to decide on who would stand.

At the last General Election, Reform's Lee Moffitt with 5,142 votes was a distant second behind Andrew Gwynne, then Labour, who won with 18,555.

But since then, Reform has soared in the national opinion polls to suggest that Mr Farage has a realistic chance of becoming Prime Minister after the next election.

Local sources said that dozens of Reform activists were already knocking on doors in the Denton part of the constituency.

Backers of Mr Burnham privately pointed out that the Manchester mayor is very popular across the region.

But Mr Farage on Saturday raised the spectre that Labour's vote in the by-election would be split by the challenge of left-wing firebrand George Galloway.

Reports this weekend claimed that Workers' Party leader Mr Galloway will stand in the forthcoming contest.

Just under two years ago, Mr Galloway inflicted a bloody nose on Labour in another North-West seat by overturning a big majority in the 2024 Rochdale by-election although Labour narrowly won the seat back a few months later in the general election.

And Mr Farage said: 'Not only would Andy Burnham have to fight Reform, but George Galloway will split his vote.

'Burnham's got to take on Reform and George Galloway, and I would say that Reform are favourites.'

Mr Galloway's fiercely pro-Gaza stance is likely to win him support among the Gorton and Denton's constituency Muslim community where just under 30 per cent are Muslim votes.

An ally of Mr Galloway told the Express on Friday: 'If it's Burnham [for Labour], I'd expect George to throw his hat into the ring.

'He likes the headlines…

'If George does stand he would do some serious damage [to Labour.'

They also said that Mr Galloway would enjoy significant support for his historic role opposing Tony Blair's wars in the Middle East.

Mr Galloway was approached for comment.