And, barring any last-minute campaign disaster, Craig, 41, will become the most powerful Labour<\/a> woman outside Westminster.<\/p>\n \u201cThe world is looking to us. The country is looking to what we can achieve. Now is the moment in Greater Manchester<\/a> to build a place that fights for us, that works for us and creates a future for all of us,\u201d she said at a manifesto launch this month to a soundtrack of mid-90s Oasis, the Charlatans and Happy Mondays.<\/p>\n One of Craig\u2019s manifesto promises is to extend free bus travel in Greater Manchester to 11-16-year-olds. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Two polls have given Labour a clear lead over Reform UK, which hopes to claim its biggest electoral coup yet after winning more than 100 council seats across Greater Manchester<\/a> less than three months ago.<\/p>\n Yet with Nigel Farage\u2019s focus shifting nearly 200 miles south-east to Clacton, where the Reform leader is fighting a self-imposed byelection<\/a> over questions about his financial affairs, there are doubts as to whether the party will even finish second on Thursday.<\/p>\n The Green party is vying to turn its recent Manchester success into its first big seat of power in British politics. However, a YouGov poll published last week<\/a> put Zack Polanski\u2019s party in third place on 17% of the vote.<\/p>\n Party figures believe this significantly underestimates its support and that its campaign has been more visible than Labour\u2019s, on the streets and online. One said: \u201cThere are still a large number of voters who are undecided, so there is everything to play for as we continue to ramp up our campaign in the final week.\u201d<\/p>\n Prof Rob Ford, of the University of Manchester\u2019s politics department, said it looked as if Burnham would \u201ceasily\u201d pass his first electoral test as prime minister<\/a> with a \u201cstraightforward Labour win\u201d.<\/p>\n However, the real mark of success, he said, would be whether Labour was able to push back the Green tide in Manchester, where it made big gains in May as well as making inroads in Salford and Trafford. Labour will also be looking to close the gap on Reform UK<\/a> in boroughs such as Wigan, the council of Burnham\u2019s constituency, and Bolton, Bury and Tameside.<\/p>\n Like Burnham, Craig is an honorary Mancunian rather than born-and-bred. She moved to the city in 2003 at the age of 18, after growing up in a struggling town 7 miles north of Belfast. Unlike some politicians who like to burnish their working-class credentials, the diminutive Northern Irishwoman has kept them largely to herself.<\/p>\n Craig is joined by Burnham, right, last month, as she launched her campaign to succeed him as Greater Manchester mayor. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n It was a recent conversation with her mother, who still lives near Belfast, that persuaded her to reveal details about her childhood even her closest advisers did not know.<\/p>\n Money was scarce growing up on a council estate in Greenisland, Craig said. She thought it was normal to be \u201csurrounded by poverty, addiction, poor mental health\u201d. Her father, a car mechanic and panel beater, turned to drink after getting injured at work and being sacked. \u201cOur world fell apart,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n As the money problems worsened, Craig recalls being asked by her parents to help them understand their life insurance policy to see \u201cif your dad ending his life would free the family from debt\u201d.<\/p>\n
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