Salford residents will head to the polls next month to vote in the Greater Manchester mayoral by-election – and two political parties have already announced their candidates.
The by-election was automatically triggered when Andy Burnham resigned as Mayor following his victory in Thursday’s Makerfield by-election.
Burnham, who returned to the House of Commons after nine years away, is hoping to use his victory in Makerfield as a springboard to win the Labour leadership and, with it, the office of prime minister.
His arrival in parliament came as Keir Starmer announced he would stand down and make way for a new leader on Monday morning.
Burnham has since confirmed he will stand as a leadership candidate.
However, his bid to land the top job means he has had to vacate a Greater Manchester mayoral role he first won in 2017 with 63 per cent of the vote.
Liverpool-born Burnham was then comfortably re-elected twice, in 2021 and 2024. But his Westminster move could weaken the Labour Party’s grip on the position.
Recent local election results across the city-region suggest this year’s race will be fiercely contested.
People living in all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester will elect his successor on 30 July and Salford was one of many to turn its back on the local Labour Party in favour of the two insurgent parties, Reform UK and the Greens, during the May local elections.
And the Green Party has already announced its candidate for next month’s Greater Manchester Mayoral by-election and promised to “throw the kitchen sink” at the campaign.
The Greens have named Trafford Council councillor Geraldine Coggins as their candidate, describing her as a “straight-talking anti-austerity campaigner.
Coggins, a councillor for Trafford since 2018 who is originally from Ireland, is a published academic with a background in leadership, public finance and strategic decision-making, the party stated.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski said: “We know that we need a Green mayor who will build affordable social and council housing, that will lobby and demand from national government rent controls that will look after our high streets and turn them back into the thriving, inclusive, accessible communities that we know that they sometimes can be, and they must always be.”
Coggins sees similarities in the party’s Denton by-election that saw Hannah Spencer become a Green MP earlier this year.
“Like Gorton and Denton, this is an election that we can win, and like Gorton and Denton, this is going to be a straight race between the Green Party with our message of joy and hope and the toxic, divisive politics of Reform,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Restore Britain party named Marlon West as its candidate.
West is a former mental health nurse and became an active campaigner against child sexual exploitation after his teenage daughter, Scarlett, was trafficked by gangs in Rochdale and across Greater Manchester.
Restore Britain is a right-wing political party founded in 2025 by former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe.
West will be the party’s first-ever candidate standing to become Mayor of Greater Manchester and says he will push to attract genuine business investment, cut wasteful public spending, protect greenfield land from developers, and overhaul “a transport network that has failed commuters for years.”
Restore Britain Leader Lowe claimed outgoing Mayor Burnham turned a blind eye to the type of victims West has been fighting for.
He added: “Marlon spent years fighting the institutions that looked the other way – he is now asking Greater Manchester voters for the chance to run those same institutions.”
The Labour Party will select its candidate for the upcoming mayoral election on Friday 26 June.
Michael Wheeler, the Labour MP for Worsley and Eccles, hailed the “progress made” over the nine years Burnham has been at the helm.
“Across Worsley & Eccles, people can see the difference that working together across Greater Manchester has made, from better transport links to new investment in our communities,” he said.
“I want that progress to continue. This is about building on what works, learning from what has delivered results and making sure every area benefits.
Labour’s focus remains on delivery, stability and partnership across our region and I will continue to support that for my constituency, a place where people are proud to live, work and raise a family. That is what it is all about.”
