Labour's Bev Craig Wins Greater Manchester Mayoral Contest
2 min read
Labour candidate Bev Craig has been elected as the next Mayor of Greater Manchester, securing a comfortable victory to succeed the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham.
She won 309,525 votes (around 66 per cent), with Reform UK candidate Sian Astley receiving 157,178 (around 34 per cent), once first and second preferences were taken into account.
Craig, a close Burnham ally who has led Manchester Council since 2021, said: "I am honoured, I am humbled, and I stand ready to serve the three million people that live across this fantastic city region."
The turnout was relatively low at just over 25 per cent.
Labour will now need to choose a new leader of the council to succeed Craig.
The by-election in Manchester was triggered after Burnham won a parliamentary by-election in Makerfield, returning to Westminster as an MP and becoming PM just weeks later.
The Greens were initially confident of success in Greater Manchester, following their victory in the Gorton and Denton parliamentary by-election in February.
Former leader of the Green Party Caroline Lucas told The House in June that the party would be "throwing everything" at the contest.
However, after the first round of voting in Greater Manchester, the Greens were in third place on 12 per cent. Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain got 9 per cent, the Conservatives 8 per cent, and the Liberal Democrats 3 per cent.
The election used a more proportional voting system than first-past-the-post, in which voters express a first and second choice. Under the system, if no candidate secures 50 per cent of the votes after the first round, then the top two candidates will be given the second preference votes from the defeated candidates.
