{"id":720917,"date":"2026-07-31T12:51:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/720917\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T12:51:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:51:19","slug":"greater-manchester-mayoral-by-election-counting-under-way-in-contest-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/720917\/","title":{"rendered":"Greater Manchester mayoral by-election: Counting under way in contest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A closer look at the candidatespublished at 13:10 BST<\/p>\n<p>13:10 BST<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Blonde-haired Sian Astley, wearing a white top, speaks to the camera\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/eebe2871-ebb2-4b71-984c-328d8f2030c8.png.webp\"  width=\"828\" height=\"466\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Reform UK<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sian Astley, Reform UK: Astley represents the Baguley ward on the Manchester City Council and said she had been a Labour voter in the past, adding that &#8220;the vice-like grip the party has held over Manchester has been evident for decades&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A woman with grey bobbed hair and black glasses wearing a dark blazer. She is outdoors with greenery behind her and smiling.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/b31920b6-4443-4a4e-a129-6f78be4cdc02.jpg.webp\"  width=\"976\" height=\"549\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Green Party<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Geraldine Coggins, Green Party: Coggins, a councillor for Trafford since 2018, is a published academic with a background in leadership, public finance and strategic decision-making. She has pledged to improve transport, housing and choose &#8220;people and planet over profits&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bev Craig has short red hair, and is wearing glasses and a white jacket over a black blouse\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8667b304-66b0-471f-a9c2-c226f90de958.png.webp\"  width=\"901\" height=\"507\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Labour Party<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bev Craig, Labour: As well as leading Manchester City Council, Craig is the deputy mayor for economy, business and inclusive growth on the region&#8217;s combined authority. She said Greater Manchester changed her life, adding &#8220;I&#8217;ve spent my career trying to give something back&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Phil Eckersley has greying blond hair and a beard. He is smiling while photographed wearing a blue t-shirt and a blue Conservative rosette.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5c845bb6-96c2-4187-a557-c82ad2a354d2.png.webp\"  width=\"767\" height=\"431\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Trafford Conservatives<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Phil Eckersley, Conservative: Eckersley currently represents Bowdon ward on Trafford Council, where he is his party&#8217;s deputy leader and shadow executive member for health and care.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Marcus Farmer has brown hair with grey temples and wears a blue anorak with orange lining and a grey scarf.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4dc1fadb-af57-4f02-ace2-5379c83872fa.jpg.webp\"  width=\"546\" height=\"307\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Marcus Farmer, Independent: Farmer is standing in his third Greater Manchester mayoral election.<\/p>\n<p>The businessman came sixth out of nine candidates in 2021, receiving just under 1% of the vote with 6,448 votes.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A close up of Richard. He has curly brown hair and is wearing a pair of glasses, a check shirt, and is smiling.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/b46ae038-dc1e-4d1c-8090-b9a0754e9bc7.jpg.webp\"  width=\"700\" height=\"393\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Liberal Democrats<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Richard Kilpatrick, Liberal Democrats: Kilpatrick, a former teacher who has been a councillor in the Didsbury area since 2018, has pledged to &#8220;tackle the cost of living crisis, improve public services and deliver desperately needed housing for the region&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Marlon West, who has grey hair and is wearing a navy blue suit over a white shirt and blue tie, smiles into the camera.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4bfe051c-0eea-449e-bd0f-2225cadbc4fd.jpg.webp\"  width=\"2048\" height=\"1152\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Restore Britain<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Marlon West, Restore Britain: A former mental health nurse, West became a prominent activist on the issue of child grooming gangs after his daughter, Scarlett, was targeted and raped, and the pair published a book on their experiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A closer look at the candidatespublished at 13:10 BST 13:10 BST Image source, Reform UK Sian Astley, Reform&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-720917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}