Labour's Bev Craig elected mayor of Greater Manchester

The UK's ruling Labour Party comfortably retained the mayoralty of Greater Manchester following an election triggered by new Prime Minister Andy Burnham's return to parliament.

Bev Craig, the leader of Manchester City Council, was elected after winning 47.15% of the votes in the first round.

The anti-immigration Reform UK party, which had been riding high in national polls, came in second place with a 21% share.

Without the 50% of votes needed to win outright, the counting proceeded to a second round.

Labour then gained over 58,000 more votes when second preferences of eliminated candidates were taken into account, with Reform picking up 45,250 more votes, according to results published on the mayoral website.

Ms Craig ended up with 309,525 first or second preference votes compared to 157,178 for Reform's Sian Astley.

More than two million people were eligible to vote in Thursday's poll. Turnout was just under 25%, according to the published results.

Mr Burnham first won the post in 2017 and was re-elected twice, most recently in 2024 with 63% of the vote.

His staunch defence of the region earned him the nickname "King of the North".

Mr Burnham announced in May that he would fight a by-election in the Makerfield constituency in order to try to return to parliament.

He won the seat in June, paving the way for him to return to Westminster and successfully challenge former prime minister Keir Starmer for the leadership of the party and country.

His two-week-old government yesterday announced plans to allow mayors to keep a share of taxes collected in their area to empower their regions.

The initiative is part of Mr Burnham's drive to shift power out of the highly centralised country's London seat of government.

Bev Craig grew up in Belfast and moved to Manchester in 2003 at the age of 18 to study politics and modern history at the University of Manchester.