Lib Dems select Jake Austin for Makerfield by-election

The Liberal Democrats have chosen Jake Austin to contest Makerfield, placing a locally rooted councillor at the centre of a by-election that will test how far Labour’s hold on working-class, post-industrial territory can be disrupted.

Austin was announced as the party’s candidate on 22 May 2026 for the contest due on Thursday 18 June 2026. The party said he was born and raised in Hindley, has lived in Greater Manchester all his life, works in fundraising and serves as a Liberal Democrat councillor. It also pointed to his run in the 2024 Greater Manchester mayoral election, where it said he lifted the Liberal Democrat vote share against Andy Burnham compared with 2021.

The seat opened up after Josh Simons resigned on 18 May 2026. UK Parliament says Makerfield was last held by Simons, for Labour, from 4 July 2024 to 18 May 2026. The by-election will be one of several taking place on 18 June, and Wigan Council has published voter-information guidance and deadlines for the contest.

Makerfield is not an obvious battleground in the way of a marginal seat. Labour has represented the constituency since it was created in 1983, and at the 2024 general election the party held it with a majority of 5,399, or 13.4 per cent. Turnout was 52.5 per cent, with 40,263 valid votes cast from an electorate of 76,641. That history gives Labour the advantage, but it also makes the by-election a sharper test of whether voters in areas like Makerfield are still moving in predictable party lines.

For the Liberal Democrats, Austin’s selection suggests a bid to connect with voters through local identity and municipal experience rather than a purely national message. Born in Hindley, a town within the borough of Wigan, and already active as a councillor, he offers the party a candidate with ties to the constituency’s wider political geography. His earlier mayoral campaign gives the party a line of attack and a data point it will want to build on: evidence that Liberal Democrat support can rise even in contests where Labour remains dominant.

The contest will show whether that approach can travel beyond the party’s traditional southern base into Labour-dominated, post-industrial seats. Makerfield will not answer every question about the state of the two-party map, but it will offer one of the clearest early tests of whether local credibility and tactical ambition can crack a seat Labour has held for more than four decades.