{"id":151702,"date":"2026-08-01T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/151702\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T00:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:00:15","slug":"bev-craig-elected-greater-manchester-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/151702\/","title":{"rendered":"Bev Craig elected Greater Manchester Mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labour’s Bev Craig will succeed Andy Burnham as the new Mayor of Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n

After no candidate secured outright victory in the first round by winning more than half of the vote, Craig beat Reform UK’s Sian Astley by 309,525 to 157,178 after second-preference votes were added.<\/p>\n

The by-election for a new mayor was called after Burnham was elected as MP for Makerfield in Greater Manchester in June, paving the way for him to become Prime Minister earlier this month.<\/p>\n

As well as having led Manchester City Council since 2021, Craig is Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s deputy mayor for economy, business and inclusive growth.<\/p>\n

Craig, the UK’s first female metro mayor, said the city region that had given the world the Suffragettes<\/a> had “changed the world” and would do so again in the future.<\/p>\n

She promised: “I will defend this city region with every bone in my body and I will fight for a better life for all of us.”<\/p>\n

Thanking those who voted for her as well as others who had “loaned their votes” as second preferences, she said: “The special ‘thank you’ has to go to the residents of Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n

“I’m honoured, I’m humbled and I stand ready to serve.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

How the first-preference votes were allocated [BBC]<\/p>\n

In the first round, Craig secured 46.5% of the vote, compared with Astley’s 22.2%.<\/p>\n

This meant the ballot papers from voters who did not select either of them as their first choice were brought back into play.<\/p>\n

They were checked to see if the second-preference votes were for either the Labour or Reform candidate.<\/p>\n

They were then added to the first-preference votes.<\/p>\n

Craig expanded her already significant lead.<\/p>\n

More than two million people across Greater Manchester’s 10 boroughs were eligible to vote in the contest but turnout was just under 25%.<\/p>\n

‘Tireless activists’<\/p>\n

“Everyone deserves a quality home in a good neighbourhood,” said Craig, adding that people should be able to plan for their future and for that of their children.<\/p>\n

She added: “We have to move away from divisive politics, and we’ll do it together.”<\/p>\n

Congratulations came from Labour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell, the MP for Manchester Central, who posted on X<\/a>: “Huge congratulations to @bevcraig our fantastic new Mayor of Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n

“Thank you to our tireless activists who have worked so hard to help deliver this win.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour’s Bev Craig will succeed Andy Burnham as the new Mayor of Greater Manchester. After no candidate secured…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26575,48869,17,48870,31119,48871,48872,48873],"class_list":["post-151702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-andy-burnham","tag-bev-craig","tag-canada","tag-greater-manchester","tag-manchester-city-council","tag-mayor-of-greater-manchester","tag-reform-candidate","tag-sian-astley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}