Politics Home | Greens Will “Throw Everything” At Manchester Mayoral Election, Says Caroline Lucas

Lucas said that the party had made “the right decision” not to throw all of its resources at the Makerfield by-election (Alamy)

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“I have to say that the foot is about to be on the pedal for the mayoral, of course, now in Manchester to replace Andy Burnham,” she said in an interview with The House magazine.

“The Greens definitely will be throwing everything at that, and I would absolutely support them in so doing, and will be up there to do what I can to help.”

Speaking to The House following Andy Burnham’s landslide victory in Makerfield, Lucas, who was the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion for 14 years, said Zack Polanski’s Greens had made “the right decision” not to run a full-throttle campaign there.

Responding to suggestions last month that the Greens would properly contest the by-election in Makerfield, Lucas posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: “I hope this isn’t true.

“There are times when it’s more important to put country before party. This is one of them. Burnham’s longstanding commitment to a fairer voting system could transform our democracy and counter [the] dire threat of a Reform UK government.”

Lucas, who was the party’s first MP, told The House that the Green candidate in Makerfield, Sarah Wakefield, “did a good job, and she did us proud, but it wasn’t the kind of campaign where the whole party was absolutely throwing all of our resources at it, and that was the right decision”.

Wakefield won just 308 votes (0.68 per cent of the vote share) after the party was widely seen to have counted itself out of the contest.

Burnham cruised to a comfortable victory, securing almost 55 per cent of the vote and winning more votes than all other candidates combined.

He must now resign as the Mayor of Greater Manchester as the law forbids him from continuing with that role while also being an MP.

The election to choose Burnham’s successor will take place on 30 July, and Lucas believes the contest will be less like Makerfield and closer to the Gorton and Denton by-election in February, when Green candidate Hannah Spencer unseated Labour. 

“The Greens are out there to win as many seats as possible, and as I say, the next priority is the Manchester mayoral, and we think we’ve got a really good chance of winning that.

“We think that will be much more along the lines of Gorton and Denton than it was along the lines of Makerfield. I know Zack is going to be up there at the weekend getting ready to launch a campaign, so we’re taking it very seriously.”

Asked who she would like to see as the Green candidate in Greater Manchester, Lucas said that the party “have just such a wonderfully broad now set of really qualified, excellent candidates that I just want to see who’s putting their name in the ring”.

“I haven’t seen the full list yet, so I don’t doubt that we’ll come up with a really good person.”

The leader of the Green group on Trafford Council, Geraldine Coggins, is expected to be the party’s candidate, The New Statesman reported on Friday.

Commenting on the idea that the Greens could step aside for Labour in the mayoral election, Lucas said: “We certainly won’t be doing that.”

The election to choose Burnham’s replacement will use a more proportional voting system than first-past-the-post, in which voters express a first and second choice. 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.

A Green Party spokesperson said: “The Greens will be campaigning hard to win the by-election for the Greater Manchester Mayoralty and, as we showed in the Gorton and Denton by-election and local elections in the area, it is going to be a clear Greens vs Reform race in this election.”

The House magazine’s full interview with Caroline Lucas will be published in print and online in June.