Labour holds Greater Manchester mayoralty as Bev Craig defeats Reform in Burnham's first electoral test

The result

Labour’s Bev Craig has been elected mayor of Greater Manchester, winning a runoff against Reform UK’s Sian Astley by 309,525 votes to 157,178 after no candidate secured a majority in the first round. The by-election, triggered when Andy Burnham vacated the post to become prime minister, saw a historically low turnout: only one in four of the more than two million eligible voters cast ballots, below the 28.9% recorded in the inaugural 2017 contest.

I will defend this city region with every bone in my body and I will fight for a better life for all of us.

Political bounce for Burnham

Coming less than a month after Burnham entered Downing Street, the win is the first electoral verdict on his premiership. Labour had feared losing the mayoralty when the former mayor returned to Westminster, but a national “Burnham bounce” and the reversal of May’s local election wipeout in boroughs such as Wigan, Tameside and Oldham turned the campaign. One Labour campaign figure said Craig won because Burnham as prime minister had signalled “you can vote Labour again” and because voters trusted Craig to “put place before party”.

Reform and Greens fall back

Reform UK’s candidate secured a third of the vote after two rounds but failed to repeat the party’s May surge, when it had won more than 100 council seats across the conurbation. Labour sources noted that the party regained every ward in Gorton and Denton, the constituency the Greens had taken from Labour in February. Reform’s campaign also lost momentum after Nigel Farage stood down as an MP to fight a self-imposed by-election in Clacton. The Greens, who had hoped to build on their recent gains, were beaten into third place in the first round, although their vote share roughly doubled from the 7% they achieved in 2024.

I never believed as a girl growing up on a council estate that one day I would have a chance to stand for the place that I love.

Craig’s path to power

Craig, 41, becomes the UK’s first female metro mayor. She has led Manchester City Council since 2021 and has been the combined authority’s lead for the economy. Originally from Belfast, she described herself as “honoured and humbled” and said Greater Manchester had rejected the “politics of hate”. The result returns the mayor’s office to Labour after a year in which the region saw three sets of elections, including the Makerfield by-election that brought Burnham back to parliament.