Andy Burnham thanks residents in the 'proud places' of Makerfield as he celebrates by-election victory

The Labour representative was greeted by a cheering crowd as he arrived at Ashton Town FC on Friday morning.

There he was hugged by Josh Simons, who had been Makerfield’s MP before he stepped aside last month so Mr Burnham could try to return to Parliament.

Mr Burnham then spoke to supporters, in front of the media, and thanked everyone who had been involved.

He said: “What a team everybody, what a team and what a campaign. Thank you all so much.

"The first thank you I have got to do is to the people of this wonderful area who looked after us so well.”

He highlighted Stubshaw Cross Community and Sports Club and Ashton Town FC, as well as Wigan bakery Galloway’s.

Mr Burnham said: “The people obviously have put up with a lot of inconvenience over the last five weeks, but they have done it with incredible patience and good humour, because that’s how people here are.

"That’s the character of the people and the place and it really came through in the by-election, so just huge thanks from us all to the people of all the proud places of the Makerfield constituency. Really everything you are about came through and we all owe you a huge debt of thanks.”

Mr Burnham described his victory in Makerfield as “the change moment”, after saying he and his team hoped to “lay out a new path for Britain”.

He told the rally: “It is our last chance to change, but we’re going to take it, aren’t we? We are going to take that opportunity and we are going to lay out a new path for Britain.”

Mr Burnham later said: “The word ‘Makerfield’ in the future must be known as a byword for the change that came to British politics. This is the moment.

“We’ve been on a path for 40 years that simply hasn’t worked for people and places in this part of the world, and this now is the change moment.

“We have an opportunity to turn the tide, to make the country feel like it’s working again, to make people see that politics can make a positive difference, to make people feel hope again.”

He added: “I think we need in this country right now for people to feel a sense of hope that there is something better to work towards on the horizon.”

Mr Burnham called for reindustrialisation and changes to the education system.

He said: “We do need an end to trickle-down economics, which didn’t trickle down very much at all to places like this.

“We want to see a new drive of reindustrialisation across the north of England, and indeed the rest of the country, and big change in Whitehall if that is to happen, and I’m talking about public procurement.

“It’s about time we started backing British business and British industry, so that we can reindustrialise places like this, and, yes, let’s change the education system so that young people growing up here have clear paths into that new industry.

“No more an education system dominated by the university route, but an education system that offers a path for everybody, academic and technical, in equal balance.

“That’s what we need if we are to change this.”

He said public procurement should be used to “get more work placements for people, a guarantee of a work placement for every 16 to 18 year old who wants one, the guarantee of an apprenticeship”.

Mr Burnham said he wanted to see changes from the Home Office to stop areas becoming “HMO Britain”.

He said: “These are the kind of changes that we need if we are to give hope to young people growing up in this part of the world.

“And yet, a change too, from the Home Office, I heard on so many doorsteps people’s concerns about the unfairness of the immigration system, that cut-price approach to procurement, that means areas like this can end up like HMO Britain.

“It’s not fair that they think that they can just operate like that and not hear the call of people here, the decent people here, who always will do the right thing, the compassionate thing, but not when it’s unfair in terms of the way places like this are treated.”