Fierce Mayoral Battle Heats Up in Greater Manchester: Hustings Reveal Voter Verdicts!
Greater Manchester's mayoral candidates recently clashed on key issues like housing, immigration, and women's rights at a public hustings. With weeks until the July 30 election, many voters remain undecided, seeking more concrete plans from the hopefuls aiming to succeed Andy Burnham.
With just over three weeks remaining until Greater Manchester's mayoral election on July 30, a recent hustings event held by the Manchester Evening News at Stoller Hall (also referred to as Chetham’s School of Music) revealed that many voters remain undecided. Audience members, including a diverse group from across all ten boroughs, expressed a need for more convincing arguments from the candidates vying to succeed Andy Burnham, who vacated the role in June.
The hustings featured candidates from six parties: Marlon West (Restore Britain), Richard Kilpatrick (Liberal Democrats), Phil Eckersley (Conservative Party), Bev Craig (Labour), Geraldine Coggins (Green Party), and Sian Astley (Reform UK). An independent candidate, Marcus Farmer, is also standing in the election. Over an hour, they debated and sometimes clashed on critical issues ranging from housing and regeneration to immigration and women’s spaces, but for some attendees, there were significant gaps in the discussion.
A dominant theme of the debate was housing and regeneration, with much criticism aimed at Labour’s record. Several candidates argued that the boroughs of Greater Manchester have been neglected, with investment disproportionately channeled into Manchester city centre at the expense of outer areas like Wigan, Rochdale, Oldham, and Bolton. Geraldine Coggins of the Green Party specifically highlighted that billions of taxpayer money had gone to developers without delivering genuinely affordable housing, stating that 1 in 80 children in the region live in temporary accommodation. She pledged to build 20,000 “new, genuinely affordable homes.”
Reform UK’s Sian Astley echoed this sentiment, noting that residents in the boroughs felt the prosperity of Manchester’s