Newly elected Manchester mayor Bev Craig is now the most powerful Labour woman outside Westminster – a diehard Corbynista with a £3bn budget who wants Andy Burnham to introduce a wealth tax.
She claimed victory in the Mayoral race to fill Andy Burnham’s still warm seat despite failing to win over 50 per cent of the first preference vote and a very low turnout of under a quarter of the electorate.
Nevertheless, she fought off the Reform UK threat, beating Reform’s candidate Sian Astley into second place after second preference votes were counted giving her 309,525 votes over Ms Astley’s 157,178, eventually
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