Greater Manchester to elect new mayor on July 30, 2026, replacing Andy Burnham who becomes PM

On July 30, Greater Manchester elects a new mayor. The old one, Andy Burnham, is now British Prime Minister. Does Labour have a chance?

Publication date: 2026-07-30 07:13

Photo: Andrew Testa/NYT/Redux/laif

By Daniel Zylbersztajn-Lewandowski From Oldham, Hyde and Stockport and Ancoats

The woman with the cats doesn't even know there are mayoral elections. Dressed in a hijab, the 37-year-old is feeding the pets in her front garden and has to check on her phone first. She doesn't know Andy Burnham either, for whom a successor as mayor of Greater Manchester will be determined on July 30.

The Eldon Street social housing complex in Oldham, built in the 1970s, ranked 39th among the most deprived places in England in 2025: narrow alleys between red brick, a car with shattered windows, rubbish everywhere.

"This place is a dump," says 50-year-old Becky at the front door opposite. On the terrace in front of her entrance stand an old armchair and a broken television set. "The people here are from everywhere," she says nonetheless, "it's a community." She sums up her relationship with politics drastically: "We are the toy forgotten in the cupboard for years."

Less than ten minutes away stands the freshly renovated town hall of Oldham in the modernized city center, the surrounding grounds carefully planted, right next to a modern family center with a public library. The town hall and grounds were only renovated last year, an employee recounts. Also new is the extension of the shopping center The Spindles, which has now given the old city market a new roof. It was only opened in March of this year.

These projects are municipally funded. Additionally, the Greater Manchester region under former mayor Andy Burnham has approved 70 million pounds for a sports project in Oldham, which is also intended to host Paralympic sports, and has had 331 apartments built, 75 of them social housing. Ultimately, 2,000 new apartments are to be created. Will they one day provide a new home for people from the rubbish-strewn Eldon Street?

Who will govern Greater Manchester in the future could be decisive for such questions. Will Andy Burnham's Labour Party remain in power and continue his program?

Background: The Mayoral Election

Mayoral election: On July 30, a new mayor will be elected in the metropolitan region of Greater Manchester. Greater Manchester includes the city of Manchester and ten other municipalities and has a total population of around 3 million on an area slightly larger than the state of Berlin. Since 2017, it has had its own regional mayor, comparable to the minister-president of a small federal state.

Andy Burnham: The only regional mayor of Greater Manchester so far was Labour politician Andy Burnham, in office from May 2017 to June 2026. Burnham won the first mayoral election in May 2017 with 63.4 percent of the vote and was re-elected in 2021 with 67.3 percent and again in 2024 with 63.4 percent. Burnham lost his office when he entered the British Parliament as a Member of Parliament for the Makerfield constituency within Greater Manchester on June 18 – the prerequisite for him to succeed Keir Starmer as Labour Party leader and thus as Prime Minister. On July 20, Burnham assumed his new office as Prime Minister.

New election: In the polls for the new mayoral election, Labour is still ahead, but only with 38 to 39 percent. A newly introduced electoral system that allows the election of multiple candidates with first and second preferences should, however, guarantee Labour a victory with over 60 percent. The second place is being contested by the right-wing populists of Reform UK and the left-wing opposition Greens.

"It's Over with Labour"

Becky will not vote on July 30. "I stopped voting since it's only possible with ID," she explains. Recently, you have to show identification when voting in Britain, but there are no identity cards in Britain – anyone who cannot present a passport or driver's license or similar has a problem. So Becky hasn't voted since 2023.

If they were to vote...