In the by election for the Mayor of Manchester, one of the Labour Party's most senior lesbian politicians, Bev Craig, won with a comfortable majority. So reports Pink News, BBC News, Sky News and the Irish Post, the latter focussing on Ms Craig's Irish heritage. The initial haul of 47% of first-preference votes exceeded every pre-election forecast, yet fell just shy of the threshold required to avoid a second round of voting.

That final round saw Craig pitted against the second-placed Reform candidate, a contest which Labour ultimately won with considerable ease. The result represents a stunning reversal of fortune for the party, particularly given the scale of the collapse it experienced in the same city-region's local elections only months previously.

In total, close to six out of every ten voters who turned out expressed support for Labour across either the first or second rounds of voting. This level of backing marks a powerful recovery in an area where the party's stock had fallen dramatically in the recent past.

Bev Craig has also served as Leader of Manchester City Council since December 2021 and has represented Burnage as a councillor since 2011. She became the first woman and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to lead Manchester City Council. Her election as mayor also made her the first woman elected to lead the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and Britain's second openly gay directly elected metro mayor after Andy Street.