Manchester Mayor By-Election 2026

[GusB]

No party has more than 50% of vote, so the two leading candidates are now in a run-off vote. Labour vs. Reform

Manchester mayor by-election: Labour and Reform UK candidates face off in second round of vote

The contest was triggered when now-Prime Minister Andy Burnham stood down from the role following his election as an MP last month.

www.bbc.co.uk

So, Sian Astley of Reform UK and Bev Craig for the Labour Party are in a runoff to see who the mayor of Greater Manchester through the rest of this term will be.

The way that it's going to work is that for anybody who didn't vote for Sian Astley or Bev Craig as their first choice, counters will now start looking at who they put as their second choice and those votes will be reallocated.

It means that both candidates may pick up some more votes as second preferences.

These will be counted up and we will then find out the final totals as to what the vote counts are for Bev Craig and Sian Astley.

Now, you would expect that Sian Astley was more likely to pick up votes from, say Conservative votes or Restore Britain voters.

Bev Craig maybe more likely to pick up voters who previously voted first for, say, the Greens or the Lib Dems.

But none of this is guaranteed.

 

[Trackman]

So they have to count all the ballot papers again? Must be an easier way of doing it.

 

[brad465]

Bev Craig has won for Labour; exact numbers after second ballot:

Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) on X

BREAKING: Labour's Bev Craig has won the Greater Manchester Mayoral election LAB: 309,525 - 66.3% ➡️ RFM: 157,178 - 33.7%

x.com

LAB: 309,525 - 66.3%
RFM: 157,178 - 33.7%

 

[oldman]

So they have to count all the ballot papers again? Must be an easier way of doing it.

They only count the second choices of those whose first choice has been eliminated.

 

[GusB]

Turnout wasn't particularly great:

Greater Manchester mayoral election 2026 turnout confirmed

More than two million people were eligalbe to vote in the election

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

The turnout for the Greater Manchester mayoral by-election has been confirmed.

Just 25.14% of those eligible turned out to vote in the election to select the region's new mayor. This amounts to 538,659 people.

It compares against a turnout of 32.05% at the last mayoral election in 2024, 34.7% in 2021 and 28.9% in 2017.

In total 2,142,779 people were able to vote in the ballot from across the region, which includes the boroughs of Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Manchester, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan.

 

[brad465]

Turnout wasn't particularly great:

Greater Manchester mayoral election 2026 turnout confirmed

More than two million people were eligalbe to vote in the election

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

It looks like turnout wasn't great in previous elections either. If Burnham pulls off his plan to allow devolved entities the ability to spend a share of income tax, he'll have to really highlight this to show voters there is a lot more at stake voting in these sorts of elections.

 

[zero]

Now, you would expect that Sian Astley was more likely to pick up votes from, say Conservative votes or Restore Britain voters.

Bev Craig maybe more likely to pick up voters who previously voted first for, say, the Greens or the Lib Dems.

But none of this is guaranteed.

Did the vote counting record how many preferences flowed from each eliminated candidate to LAB and RFM?

 

[oldman]

Did the vote counting record how many preferences flowed from each eliminated candidate to LAB and RFM?

It seems not. The official figures show who got the second preference votes but not where from. Roughly 200K first choice votes for the right, 330K for the centre-left

First preferences

Lab 251449
Reform 111928
Green 64968
Restore 46289
Tory 41021
Lib 14702
Ind 2969

Second preferences from eliminated candidates

Lab 58076
Reform 45250
N/A 53540

 

[TheSmiths82]

I am glad that even with Reform and Restore Labour still managed to get a higher vote than them two combined. That was vital so that Farage can't say Restore cost him the vote. On Facebook I am seeing a lot of comments about the election:

"It was rigged" - Yes of course it was
"It was the muslim vote" - 13% of the population of Greater Manchester classed themselves as Muslim in the 2021 census.
"It was the Asian vote" - 73% of GM is White British.
"It was all the people voting restore" - No, even with them two combined Labour still had a massive majority.

The other thing of note is that every borough voted for Labour, so even if it was pass the post Labour still would have won. In some areas such as Tameside though the vote between Reform and Labour was much tighter. The less affluent the borough is the higher the Reform/Restore vote. The only borough the Tories did well in was Trafford, but parts of Trafford (Hale etc) have always been very Tory.

 

[muz379]

I am glad that even with Reform and Restore Labour still managed to get a higher vote than them two combined. That was vital so that Farage can't say Restore cost him the vote. On Facebook I am seeing a lot of comments about the election:

"It was rigged" - Yes of course it was
"It was the muslim vote" - 13% of the population of Greater Manchester classed themselves as Muslim in the 2021 census.
"It was the Asian vote" - 73% of GM is White British.
"It was all the people voting restore" - No, even with them two combined Labour still had a massive majority.

The other thing of note is that every borough voted for Labour, so even if it was pass the post Labour still would have won. In some areas such as Tameside though the vote between Reform and Labour was much tighter. The less affluent the borough is the higher the Reform/Restore vote. The only borough the Tories did well in was Trafford, but parts of Trafford (Hale etc) have always been very Tory.

Indeed It was good to see that even Reform and Restore combined were far behind what was required to win.

Disappointingly I have also seen lots of comments online about the sexuality and gender identity of the new Mayor, mostly from men who have nothing better to do than try and put a woman down over the way she looks.

 

[Trackman]

Disappointingly I have also seen lots of comments online about the sexuality and gender identity of the new Mayor, mostly from men who have nothing better to do than try and put a woman down over the way she looks.

Some people need to grow up.