Labour’s Bev Craig elected as Greater Manchester mayor

Votes from Thursday’s by-election were counted throughout the day, with the result initially expected to be declared in the afternoon but not arriving until 11pm.

More than two million people were eligible to vote in the contest across 10 boroughs, triggered by new PM Andy Burnham’s election to Parliament last month.

Craig is currently the leader of Manchester City Council and is the member for economy, business and inclusive growth on the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

The Greater Manchester mayoral election went to a second round as no candidate received more than 50 per cent of the vote, with Labour’s Craig and Reform UK’s Astley, who is a Trafford Councillor, left in the running after the first round.

Reform UK candidate Sian Astley with the party’s Oldham councillors. (Image: Sian Astley for Mayor/Facebook)

Five candidates were eliminated from the contest to become Greater Manchester mayor – Geraldine Coggins (Green), Phil Eckersley (Conservative), Marcus Farmer (Independent), Richard Kilpatrick (Liberal Democrats) and Marlon West (Restore Britain).

The by-election uses a voting system called supplementary vote (SV), which sees voters mark their ballot papers with a first and second choice, and if any candidate wins more than 50 per cent of the first-choice votes, they are declared the winner.

That did not happen in Greater Manchester, so the top two candidates moved to a second round.

The ballot papers of the eliminated candidates were counted again and if there were any second-choice votes for the two remaining candidates, these were added to their first-choice totals.

The candidate with the highest overall total of first- and second-choice votes is then declared the winner.

SV was the method of voting at the 2017 and 2021 mayoral elections, but first-past-the-post was used in 2024 following a change in the law by the previous Conservative government.

The current Labour Government passed legislation earlier this year to reinstate SV for mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections.

The turnout in the Greater Manchester mayoral by-election was 25.14 per cent, with 538,659 residents voting, Greater Manchester Elects said.

When Andy Burnham was re-elected in May 2024, the turnout was 32.05 per cent.