Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Labour Holds Greater Manchester Mayoralty
The former Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, is now Prime Minister. He got there by a unique route. He resigned as Mayor to stand in a by-election brought on by the resignation of a sitting MP specifically to allow Mr. Burnham to return to Commons. He won, and within a couple of week, Labour had crowned him their leader, which meant he was the new resident at Number 10. His resignation, though, left a vacancy that also had to be filled with a by-election. That was held on Thursday, and the count officially ended Friday. Although it had to go to an instant run-off, Bev Craig of Labour held on to win against a strong but second-place Reform Party.
Unlike most other elective positions in the UK government, the metropolitan mayors are elected using a supplementary vote system,unless there are just two candidates. Otherwise, as the Electoral Commission notes:
If there are three or more candidates, the mayor is elected using the Supplementary Vote system.
You will vote for your top two candidates. Mark an 'X' next to your first choice in column A, and then an 'X' next to your second choice in column B.
You don’t have to choose a second candidate if you don’t want to, but you need to mark your first choice, or your vote won't be counted.
If a candidate gets more than half of all the first choice votes, they are elected. If this doesn't happen, the two candidates with the most first choice votes are kept, and all other candidates are taken out of the race.
The ballot papers marked for the candidates who were taken out of the race in the first round are counted again. This time the second choice votes on those ballot papers are counted and added to the totals of the two candidates still in the race.
The candidate with the most first and second choice votes is then elected.
At the local elections in May when Labour did so poorly it led to the defenstrataion of Sir Keir Starmer as PM, Reform came first in the Greater Manchester area, winning 31% of the vote and 104 of 214 council seats. Labour was second with 24% and just 35 seats. The concern here for Labour was that the area had gone to Reform and was sticking with it.
On first preferences in the mayor's race, Labour secured 47.1% of the vote, almost enough to win it right there. Reform was at 21%. The Greens were third with 12.2%; Restore Britain (a bunch who think Reform is too moderate)got 8.7%; the Tories secured 7.7%; the Liberal Democrats got 2.8%; and Independent Marcus Farmer got 0.6%.
On second preferences, it was a blow out. Ms. Craig secured 66.3% of the votes, and Sian Astley of Reform got 33.7%.
What is interesting here is how the second preferences worked out. Restore and the Conservatives combined were worth 16.4% in the first round, but Reform only picked up 12.7%. Some 3.7% of the non-Reform voters on the right could not stomach voting Reform. This presumes no LibDem or Green voted Reform as their second choice (and frankly it is hard to believe there is a single such voter). This also does not allow for spoilt ballots or ballots without a second preference. So, the arithmetic is not 100% certain.
What this means is that the Andy Burnham approach to politics in Greater Manchester is working despite the local election hiccup. It also means that the scandals in Reform (mostly having to do with the grifting that goes on there) took the shine off the party.
Labour have a long way to go before they can say they are out of the woods here, but the results are clear about one thing. The bleeding appears to have stopped. If so, Mr. Burnham has succeeded in this test. It remains to be seen how he performs once Parliament is in session again.
© Copyright 2026 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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