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Watch the moment Mayor Andy Burnham learns of Labour landslide as Tories lose all Greater Manchester seats
Labour were backed almost across the board in the region.
Danny Jones -
5th July 2024 
It’s official: the Labour Party have won the 2024 UK General Election as the Conservative reign is brought to an end after 14 years and the Mayor for Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, learning of the landslide has become somewhat of a viral moment.
Not only were the Tories displaced from Parliament following the result but the Labour majority was massive, winning a total of 412 seats compared to just 120 for the incumbents but most notably in local terms, not a single blue seat was left intact.
With 25 of the region’s 27 constituencies going red and backing Sir Keir Starmer to become Prime Minister, Manchester’s Mayor Burnham made no secret of his relief and satisfaction as the exit polls came through on Thursday night whilst sat on the panel for Sky News’ coverage.
Here’s the moment Burnham was visibly buzzing mid-broadcast:
Watch moment Manchester's mayor @AndyBurnhamGM sees the exit poll for the first timehttps://t.co/fwW1wsuE8v
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 4, 2024
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/IEYy5FOAlc
A very happy man.
The 54-year-old was already vocally positive in the lead-up to the vote as well, responding to the now outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s claims that a Labour supermajority and “blank cheque” approach would only lead to more tax.
Quoting him on X, the former MP for Leigh simply wrote, “So it looks like the Tories are giving up on getting back into government in my lifetime. I’ll settle for that!”, along with a laughing emoji.
Notable decisions included divisive politician George Galloway being defeated by Labour in Rochdale, with the Workers Party of Britain leader absent from the live result. You can see the 2024 electoral map in full HERE.
Safe to say he also ‘woke up’, if he went to sleep at all, rather happy on Friday morning.
Happy Friday everyone! 🌹🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/boL8VNhpr1
— Andy Burnham (@AndyBurnhamGM) July 5, 2024
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The only two Greater Manchester seats to stray from the red wall were Stockport constituencies Hazel Grove and Cheadle, which still have some historic Cheshire roots where the vote was more varied and some Conservative voters still held out.
Much like the crowd in the hall over in North East Somerset and Hanham (a newly created seat), where Jacob Rees-Mogg has remained since 2010, Burnham also thoroughly enjoyed the moment he learned the Labour landside including the controversial Tory losing to Dan Norris by more than 5k votes.
Dubbing it the “[Michael] Portillo moment” he has been waiting for (referencing the Conservative frontbencher once tipped to become the party’s leader who was displaced Stephen Twigg in the 1997 election), Burnham said: “He’s been battered and he deserves to be”.
The Mayor went on to insist that “he has no clue what’s inflicted on people” – a sentiment we imagine he feels applies to the last decade and a half of Tory rule in general.
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Featured Images — Sky News (via screenshot)/World Economic Forum
