HAVING COUNTED the winning Labour votes, it was time for the rest of the candidates to count their losses.
The Conservatives, Green Party, Liberal Democrats, Reform UK, Restore Britain and an independent were left in the dust, following a seismic win from Labour’s Bev Craig.
She won the ballot with a 66.3 per cent final vote share, out of the 533,326 votes counted by staffers.
That was out of 2,142,779 eligible voters in Manchester – an exceptionally low turnout of 25.14 per cent, despite it being the biggest byelection in British history.
“To have trust placed in you is an honour,” Craig said of the landslide win.
“I’m honoured. I’m humbled and I stand ready to serve the 3,000,000 people that live across this fantastic city region.
“For too many people across our region, life is simply too hard. The generational belief that we had, that if you work hard and do the right thing, your life will be better, and the life of the community will be better, is something that many people just don’t feel at the minute.
“And that’s the challenge that we in politics have to face as well. And it’s why I set myself a simple task, and I make that commitment to you today. That every single decision I take, as your Mayor of Greater Manchester, will pass the test of making your life better.”
It was a different story for yesterday’s runners-up however, with an abyssal second place going to Sian Astley of Reform UK, with 157,178 first and second round votes.
For the rest, only the first round votes were counted. She was followed by the Green Party’s Geraldine Coggins , with 64,968, Restore Britain’s Marlon Scott West, 46,289, Conservative Phil Eckersley, 41,021, and the Liberal Democrats’ Richard Kilpatrick, 14,702.
With 2,969 votes, last place was scraped by independent candidate Marcus Farmer.
For Astley, the final results came as a devastating knockout to what she hoped would be a promising political career.
The Reform UK candidate first made her mark on BBC One’s DIY SOS and BBC Two’s Your Home Made Perfect.
The former TV expert was spurred to politics after growing weary of the Labour Party’s “vice-like grip” over Manchester, despite admitting she had started as a Labour voter before swinging to Reform UK.
Just days before the July 30 poll, Astley walked out of her final hustings event alongside independent Marcus Farmer, who was denied entry after having not given sufficient notice to attend.
However, after scraping just 29.5 per cent of the vote share, Astley was quick to depart the final vote count, after first taking a break alone to recover.
Meanwhile, huddled in the corner opposite Labour’s, a marginally less soggy mood hung over the Green Party members who spent more than 15 hours awaiting a result.
Trafford councillor Geraldine Coggins was quick to shower her supporters with praise, though kept a tight lip on the Labour win.
“I’m going to start by having a good sleep tonight before I make any plans,” she said of her next move.
“But in terms of the Green Party, we are really pleased with how we’ve done in the crucial places that we’re targeting. We will be rolling out our plans for the local and general of election, and of course, there will be another mayoral election coming up.
“What we’ve seen is not a ringing endorsement of this new mayor or of this prime minister.”
When asked about the possibility of at least some of her ideas being brought forward by a sympathetic Labour mayor, Coggins said the vote count gave the Greens a chance to pile the pressure onto Labour.
She added: “A lot of what we’re doing is about pushing the Labour government into action, and I guess that will hold as well for a Labour mayor.
“We have a phrase in the Green Party ‘Where the Greens lead, Labour follows.’ I very much expect that they have seen many of the votes that came to us, they had lost, and they will have to listen to those voters and take those opinions seriously.”
And though quickly hammered into submission by the wider figures, there was a degree of optimism among the yellow-tied party members drinking coffee in the public gallery.
Richard Kilpatrick admitted he knew the Lib Dems were going to be “squeezed”, but that he was certain of a good campaign.
He said: “We’ve talked about the issues that are really important to the people of Greater Manchester, and we know that we’ve received really positive feedback from everywhere we’ve campaigned across the ten boroughs.
“We just hope that we’ve had the best impact we possibly can, and if we haven’t, we’ll continue to campaign on those priorities that people told us about.
“I think it’s all about trying to remind people that people are human. The Liberal Democrats are a party that many people may not have considered, and it’s trying to be like, ‘Okay, these people are normal.’
“We try to focus on the issues that’s that matter to people, and if I’ve left a good impression on everywhere I’ve been, then that’s a win for me.”
The mayor of Greater Manchester is the leader of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), which controls the region’s housing, transport, funding, economy, and emergency services.
Craig’s major policies for the region include extended free bus travel to 11 to 18-year-olds, freezing fares for the buses and Metrolink past December, and delivering 50,000 new affordable homes.
She would also see £20 million invested into town centre and high street regeneration projects, as well as a commission on rent controls and tailored support for people experiencing homelessness.
“This is about the city region that we want to be,” she said.
“This is the Greater Manchester that we can be. And that’s the belief that we can build things to make our lives better.
“I never believed, as a girl growing up on a council estate, that one day I would have the chance to stand for the place that I love, the place in this world that I’m proud to call home, and to offer my service to make our city region better. Because Greater Manchester is special.””