MANCHESTER — Labour’s Bev Craig won the Greater Manchester mayoral by-election Friday night and will now succeed British Prime Minister Andy Burnham in the region’s top job.
Craig came top with 309,525 votes, with Reform UK’s Bev Craig trailing on 157,178 votes. The Green Party placed third.
The victory was achieved with a second round under the city’s supplemental vote system, which allows voters to pick a first and second-preference candidate.
Speaking at the Co-Op Live arena to the east of the city, Craig said she stands “ready to serve” her 3 million constituents.
“Every single decision I take as your mayor of Greater Manchester will pass the test of making your life better,” Craig pledged.
The vote was triggered after three-time mayoral contest winner Burnham resigned the job in June to return to Westminster, where he swiftly claimed leadership of the governing Labour Party and became prime minister. There had been concern that Burnham’s move would allow Reform UK — which performed strongly in local elections in England earlier this year — to seize the mayoralty.
Craig will now be have to deal directly with Burnham, who has promised to devolve more powers to England’s mayors as a part of a devolution package. The post currently comes with powers over transport, policing, and housing.
Turnout for the special election was noticeably lower than when Burnham last ran back in 2024, with only 25 per cent of voters heading to the polls this time, compared to 32 per cent at the last vote. POLITICO witnessed some voters on doorsteps Thursday evening learning of the election for the first time.
Counting continued late into the night as the re-instated supplementary voting system took the contest to a second round for the first time ever.
Reform diverted
In the weeks before the election, polls put Craig firmly in the lead. Reform UK had initially been expected to pose a strong challenge, but some of its resources were diverted South as Nigel Farage called a separate by-election in his constituency of Clacton in a bid to shut down scrutiny of his finances.
The Greens set about targeting areas in which they knew they already had support. While out door-knocking in Longsight, an area in the constituency of Gorton and Denton, candidate Geraldine Coggins said they were “going for the hat-trick,” after winning a councilor and an MP in recent votes. Zack Polanski’s party threw money at an air campaign, too, pumping out Instagram videos featuring the leader, Gorton and Denton MP Hannah Spencer, and Coggins.
Greater Manchester has a huge electorate of 2.1million voters, and there were only 5 weeks to campaign. “You can’t hit all those doors,” explained Coggins.
Coggins’ Instagram account reached 4.6million views in the past 30 days and campaign ads had been shown on screen 50.7million times, according to her team.
Meanwhile, Craig spent some £53,000 on digital ads between Meta and Google, and told POLITICO before the vote: “People have been stopping me in the street. And I’ve been really high-profile and visible in my campaign even when other parties went hard on their attacks.” A yellow Labour battle bus cruised the streets as voters went to the polls Thursday. One campaigner shouted “Vote Bev today” through a microphone while fellow activists cheered and waved posters from the top deck.
Meanwhile, Reform seemed to have toned down their own efforts. One Bolton resident said they had not received a single campaign leaflet from Reform, which traditionally relies on social media and letters rather than door-knocking, despite receiving an influx during the local elections in May where the party made big strides, especially in the north of the city region.
The party’s candidate Sian Astley drew some criticism for backing out of hustings hosted by local media outlet the Manchester Mill, and spent just £14,000 on digital ads.