Bev Craig, the leader of Manchester city council, has been named as Labour's candidate to replace Andy Burnham as Greater Manchester mayor in a byelection scheduled for 30 July. The contest is expected to be a tight battle with Reform UK, as Labour braces for a bitter fight after losing over 100 seats across Greater Manchester in May's local elections.
Record-breaking byelection
As many as 2 million people will be eligible to vote in the Greater Manchester byelection, making it the biggest in modern times in British politics. Burnham, who could become prime minister in under four weeks, is expected to campaign heavily for Labour. He won the 2024 mayoral contest with nearly two-thirds of the vote and a 351,000-vote majority.
Craig's background and rise
Craig, 41, took over Manchester city council in 2021 at the age of 36, becoming only the third holder of the office in four decades and its first woman. She has long been seen as a rising star within Labour. However, like many council leaders, she remains little-known to ordinary voters. A huge publicity blitz will pitch her as continuing the work of Burnham.
Craig has spoken of her childhood in council housing in Greenisland, about seven miles north of Belfast, before moving to Manchester in 2003. She was awarded an Order of the British Empire in December for services to local government, for which she is understood to have received a congratulatory call from Keir Starmer.
In a 2021 interview with the Manchester Evening News, Craig came out as gay at the age of 14 and said: "Everyone told me my life would be a disaster, nobody would love me." She added: "I don't want to be pigeonholed, to just be invited to panels to talk about how it feels like to be a woman. Talk to me about my economic policy, talk about inclusive growth, transport, infrastructure, business, like the stuff that I enjoy reading about."
Reform UK and other challengers
Reform UK has not yet named its candidate but the frontrunner is Dan Barker, a nuclear industry project manager who came fourth with 7.5% of the vote in the 2024 mayoral election. In May's local elections, Reform UK won 106 seats across Greater Manchester's 10 local authorities, including 18 out of 19 contested in Tameside, 24 out of 25 in Wigan, and seven on Manchester city council.
The Green party has unveiled its candidate as Trafford councillor Geraldine Coggins, pitching the battle to replace Burnham as a contest between its party and Reform UK. Meanwhile, Rupert Lowe's hardline rightwing Restore Britain is expected to focus the campaign on grooming gangs, an issue that scarred communities in Oldham and Rochdale. Its candidate, mental health nurse Marlon West, is the father of grooming gang victim Scarlett. The party has garnered influential support from Elon Musk, the trillionaire owner of X.
Impact and stakes
Labour figures are braced for a bitter dogfight with Reform UK. In 2024, Reform finished nearly 4,000 votes ahead of the Green party's Hannah Spencer, who won the Gorton and Denton byelection in February. The byelection for the mayoralty is seen as a key test of Labour's strength in the region ahead of a potential general election.
