Labour names Bev Craig as Greater Manchester mayor candidate ahead of July byelection

Bev Craig, the leader of Manchester city council, has been named as the Labour candidate to succeed Andy Burnham as Greater Manchester mayor. The byelection is scheduled for 30 July and will involve up to 2 million eligible voters, marking it as the largest in modern British politics. Craig, 41, took over the council leadership in 2021 at age 36, becoming the first woman and only the third person to hold the office in four decades.

Labour faces a substantial challenge from Reform UK, which gained more than 100 seats across Greater Manchester’s 10 local authorities during the May elections. The party secured 106 seats in the region, including 18 out of 19 contested positions in Tameside and 24 out of 25 in Wigan. Reform UK has not yet officially named its candidate, but Dan Barker, a nuclear industry project manager who finished fourth in the 2024 mayoral election with 7.5 per cent of the vote, is considered the frontrunner.

Andy Burnham, who won the 2024 contest with nearly two-thirds of the vote and a 351,000-vote majority, is expected to campaign heavily for Labour. Speculation suggests Burnham could become prime minister within four weeks, potentially limiting his direct involvement in the byelection campaign. Labour intends to use a publicity blitz to position Craig as the continuity candidate for Burnham’s tenure.

The Green Party has nominated Trafford councillor Geraldine Coggins as its candidate. In the 2024 mayoral election, Reform UK finished nearly 4,000 votes ahead of the Greens’ Hannah Spencer, who subsequently won the Gorton and Denton byelection in February. The Greens have framed the upcoming contest as a direct battle between their party and Reform UK.

Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain party has selected Marlon West, a mental health nurse and father of a grooming gang victim, as its candidate. The party is expected to centre its campaign on issues related to grooming gangs in Oldham and Rochdale, having garnered support from Elon Musk, owner of X. Craig, who was awarded an Order of the British Empire in December for services to local government, has previously emphasised her focus on economic policy and infrastructure over identity-based narratives.