Andy Burnham has confirmed he will be running for a Labour leadership bid in order to 'save the party'.
The Greater Manchester Mayor will run for the constituency seat in Makerfield as a first step to the leadership bid, if successful.
This comes after the constituency seat freed up after its current MP Josh Simons announced he would step down to pave the way for Mr Burnham to return to Westminster.
If the Greater Manchester Mayor wins the Makerfield by-election, this would allow him to make a leadership bid for the role of Prime Minister, so long as he had the backing of 80 other MPs.
He said, speaking to the BBC: "Labour needs to change and be once again the party that people in this community knew and voted for for many years.
"I don't blame anybody who in recent times has gone away and voted for other parties.
"I want to regain their trust. I want Labour solidly to be the party of working class people and working class communities and that requires a lot of change."
Mr Burnham was given the approval to run for the seat yesterday by Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) after they previously blocked him from running in the Gorton & Denton by-election in February.
Mr Burnham pictured today leaving his home in Warrington as he heads to the FA Cup Final in Wembley
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Speaking from Wigan, he continued to say Britain has been on "the wrong path for 40 years", referencing the measures of Margaret Thatcher's Government which saw deindustrialisation across many northern towns and cities, as well as "privatisation of life's essentials".
He said: "Britain has been on the wrong path for 40 years. It started in this borough with deindustrialisation, deregulation of the buses, privatisation of life's essentials, and it's left us today in a position where many people in this borough cannot make things add up.
"We need to massively make life more affordable for them."
He added there is a need to "fix politics" and to "get the basics back under public and market control".
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Former deputy Prime Minister said she has not made any non-aggression leadership pacts with Mr Burnham
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When questioned about accusations of the move being centered on his own personal ambition, Mr Burnham said: "People say it's unnecessary - I think this is a very necessary election.
"It's about fixing politics, because it's not been working for people, and people have a really strong sense of that. They voted last Thursday and the unmistakable message was: this is not good enough."
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