Burnage by-election LIVE as Labour battling to hold on to mayor Bev Craig’s old council seat with Greens hoping for upset

Labour are battling to hold onto Bev Craig’s former council seat in Burnage tonight (Thursday) after polls closed at 10pm in a crucial by-election.

Carl Austin-Behan is hoping to hold the seat for Labour, with his main rival expected to be the Green Party’s Daoud Nawaz.

The race has been tipped as a ‘huge’ moment for the city’s future with the Greens gunning to make a ‘statement’ by taking the former council leader’s seat, which has boundaries covering Burnage and parts of southern Levenshulme.

The seat with nearly 14,000 voters is up for grabs after former Manchester City Council leader Ms Craig was elected as mayor of Greater Manchester in July.

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While the outcome in Burnage tonight won’t have a drastic impact on the overall control of the council which is comfortably in Labour’s hands, it could be a sign of things to come with the May 2027 local elections now just eight months away.

Manchester council is run by the Labour Party, which holds 63 seats in the city, next to the opposition Greens with 21, seven Reform UK councillors, and four Lib Dems.

Labour lost council seats across Manchester in the 2026 local elections as the Greens and Reform UK both made major gains around the city, including in Burnage where the Greens won the ward by more than 800 votes.

A lot has changed since then, however, with Andy Burnham being elected as the MP for Makerfield in June and going on to become Prime Minister, sparking an uplift for Labour’s fortunes in what has been described as the ‘Burnham bounce’

That will be put to the test tonight after some voters in Burnage told the Manchester Evening News this week that there are major issues affecting the area, from speeding cars to ‘crumbling’ pavements.

Manchester council’s new leader, Coun Garry Bridges, will no doubt be keeping a close eye on the result tonight with his own seat in nearby Old Moat also up for election in 2027, in a ward which also voted in a Green Party councillor in this May’s local elections.

The candidates standing in the race are: Carl Austin-Behan (Labour), Bhupinder Kumar (Conservative), Heather McDonagh (Reform UK), Daoud Nawaz (Green), Gaz Ranjha (Workers Party), and Abdullah Vavdiwala (Lib Dems).

We have a reporter and photographer at the count at Manchester Central Library and will be bringing you updates as we get them in the live blog below