The moment Bev Craig took to the podium at Manchester’s Co-op Live to make her victory speech, was also the moment the Makerfield gamble paid out in full.
This morning, Craig wakes up the freshly-crowned Queen of the North – after the new Mayor of Greater Manchester soundly beat Reform’s Sian Astley, 66.3 per cent to 33.7 after two rounds of voting.
Now, the winner of the biggest by-election in British electoral history will become one of the most important players in the future of devolution. But perhaps even more than that, this is a key scene in the biopic, ‘The Rise and Fall of Nigel Farage ’.
Let us remember that just 11 weeks ago – pundits and even some Labour MPs – were claiming Andy Burnham couldn’t possibly win Makerfield, and that leaving his job in Greater Manchester would lead to Reform claiming its first ever Metro Mayor.
Then Josh Simons resigned his seat, in a complex political chess move dubbed ‘The Makerfield Gambit’, but really ‘gamble’ might have been a better word. Today, it’s champagne supernovas all round.
Two honorary Mancunians – one from Liverpool, the other from Belfast – are once more united by a common purpose. Burnham is in charge of the country, Craig now commands the biggest mayoral authority outside London, and a £3bn budget. She is also Mayor at the unprecedented moment when her predecessor has launched No 10 in the North, just a few doors down from the Town Hall.
And, clearly, Labour voters felt good about voting Labour again. Party sources say the wins came in the outer towns that voted Reform in the local elections, and that they won every ward in Hannah the Plumber’s Denton and Gorton.
Since the ascension of Burnham, Manchester has regained the swagger of Liam Gallagher at the 1995 Brit Awards. While Reform leader Nigel Farage cuts a lonely figure on a windswept beach at Clacton – fighting not just a bin but a string of joke candidates.
The two summer by-elections, in Clacton and Manchester, could not be in starker contrast. The beginning of a shift in power versus a end-of-the-pier show where the novelty acts are starting to look tired.
What makes Bev Craig’s victory all the more sweet, is that the first female and first LGBTQ+ leader of Manchester City Council, now becomes its first female and first LGBTQ+ Mayor.
Eleven weeks ago it seemed possible – even likely – that Reform, which has shut down Pride celebrations, and cut money to support groups wherever it is in power, might take control of a city with a proud gay village at its heart.
But May 12 this year – the moment Andy Burnham stepped declared he intended to stand for the seat of Makerfield – turned out to be a sliding doors moment for British politics.
True Faith, a New Order song no-doubt played by Andy Burnham when he DJ’ed at Craig’s 40th birthday party last year, is now not just his campaign song but symbolises a leap of political faith.
Could it now be last orders for pint-loving Nigel Farage? As he faces down the bin and funding allegations swirl around him, perhaps one more by-election will tell.