The closest second place was to a Conservative Party candidate, Ian Bruce, who came 787 votes (1.6%) short of taking the seat in 1983.

[3] Burnley saw strong opposition support for the Liberal Democrats in 2005, moving into second place; meanwhile a local independent pushed Yousuf Miah, a Conservative into fourth position.

However, Birtwistle was one of the many casualties faced by the Liberal Democrats in the 2015 election, losing the seat to Julie Cooper, who had also stood as Labour's candidate in 2010, although the 6.2% swing away from Birtwistle was less than half the 15.2% national swing against his party.

Birtwistle stood again, but saw his share of the vote halved; this was widely seen to be due to his party's stance on Brexit.

[5] In 2024 Higginbotham's vote halved and the seat was regained for Labour by Oliver Ryan.