Bev Craig chosen as Labour candidate for Greater Manchester mayor

Labour has named Bev Craig, the leader of Manchester City Council, as its candidate to replace Andy Burnham as Greater Manchester mayor. Burnham, who could become prime minister in less than four weeks, is expected to campaign vigorously for Labour in the July 30 by-election, which will be a tight contest with Reform UK.

Up to 2 million people will be eligible to vote in the Greater Manchester by-election, making it the largest in modern British political history. Craig, 41, has long been seen as a rising star within Labour. She took over Manchester City Council in 2021 at age 36, becoming only the third holder in four decades and its first woman.

Like many council leaders, however, she remains little-known to ordinary voters. A major publicity blitz will present her as continuing Burnham's work, who won the 2024 contest with nearly two-thirds of the vote and a 351,000-vote majority.

Labour figures are bracing for a bitter fight with Reform UK after losing more than 100 seats across Greater Manchester in May's local elections. Reform UK won 106 seats in the area's ten local authorities, including 18 out of 19 contested in Tameside, 24 out of 25 in Wigan, and seven on Manchester City Council. Nigel Farage's party has not yet named its candidate but the frontrunner is Dan Barker, a nuclear industry project manager who finished fourth with 7.5% of the vote in the 2024 mayoral election.

The Greens have selected Trafford councillor Geraldine Coggins as their candidate. Rupert Lowe's hardline right-wing Restore Britain party 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 a grooming gang victim.

Craig has spoken about growing up in council housing in Greenisland, about seven miles north of Belfast, before moving to Manchester in 2003. She was awarded an OBE in December for services to local government and reportedly received a congratulatory call from Keir Starmer. Craig came out as gay at age 14 and later said she does not want to be pigeonholed as the first woman or openly gay leader of Manchester City Council, preferring to discuss economic policy, inclusive growth, transport, and infrastructure.