Nigel Farage could be the next prime minister – but Labour could beat him by connecting with voters more, Greater Manchester’s Labour mayor has told Sky News.

Andy Burnham, talking to Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, said the Reform UK leader winning the next election “is in the realms of possibility”.

“But we’ve got to make sure that it doesn’t become a reality,” he said.

“I don’t ever demonstrate complacency as a politician, I will always say it like it is.

“He’s connected with people, maybe not everybody, but he’s connected.”

Asked if he thinks Labour are not connecting with voters at the moment, he said he does not think his party is speaking enough about “working class ambition”.

Mr Burnham said there are “hundreds of thousands” of people in Greater Manchester who are being “held back by their housing situation”.

He said previous generations would have had council housing to “propel them to do amazing things” and if the government can follow up with its promise to build 1.5 million homes “they will really connect with people”.

The mayor said his party has not “spoken properly for quite some time now” to young people and their parents who want alternatives to the university route.

He said Labour has only seemed to care “in some people’s minds” about the university route, which “leaves a disconnect”.

To really come up strong against Mr Farage, Mr Burnham said Labour have “got to really speak to that working class ambition”.

He added: “I think Starmer has got to respond to the changing world that we’re in.”

The polls are now open in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election.

It comes following the death of SNP government minister Christina McKelvie.

The MSP died in March at the age of 57, having last year taken medical leave to undergo treatment for secondary breast cancer.

Ms McKelvie, the minister for drugs and alcohol policy, had been an MSP since 2007 and represented the Central Scotland region up to 2011 before going on to serve Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse.

There are 10 candidates standing in the Holyrood by-election:

• Collette Bradley, Scottish Socialist Party
• Andy Brady, Scottish Family Party
• Ross Lambie, Reform UK
• Katy Loudon, Scottish National Party (SNP)
• Janice MacKay, UK Independence Party (UKIP)
• Ann McGuinness, Scottish Green Party
• Aisha Mir, Scottish Liberal Democrats
• Richard Nelson, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
• Davy Russell, Scottish Labour Party
• Marc Wilkinson, Independent

The contest takes place less than a year before the Scottish parliament election, with the result potentially offering a snapshot of how the political landscape north of the border will look in 2026.

Polls will close at 10pm on Thursday, with the votes set to be verified and manually counted at South Lanarkshire Council headquarters in Hamilton.

Sky News will be covering the count and result.