Labour and Reform dodge Manchester mayoral election community hustings

With days to go in Greater Manchester’s historic mayoral by-election, both Labour and Reform candidates stand accused of dodging multiple community hustings.

One was a hustings organised on 26 July by the Forum of Muslim Organisations (FMO). Then there was the Mill hustings on 27 July.

Another was hosted by grassroots community power organisation ACORN, which hosted its cost-of-living and housing hustings on Tuesday 28 July alongside GM Immigration Aid Unit, and the GM Coalition of Disabled People.

There was also an LGBTQ+ hustings, where an audience member at ACORN’s hustings pointed out that “the millionaire parties” failed to show up.

Before these was the ‘Green Hustings’, albeit organised by the Green Party, which challenged candidates:

How will the next Mayor of Greater Manchester build community resilience against flooding and extreme heat, reverse nature’s loss and improve people’s lives by leading on the clean energy transition?

The Green Party event at Manchester Metropolitan University challenged Labour and Reform to

tell us how they can justify drilling in the North Sea while Greater Manchester is literally on fire.

It’s safe to say that neither Labour nor Reform were interested in defending their positions on the raging climate crisis and devastation of our natural world.

Tonight, we’re joining the Big Green Hustings at Manchester Met – and it’s just us!

Geraldine is the only candidate due to appear – because she’s the only candidate who takes the climate crisis seriously. We’re challenging Labour and Reform to show up – and tell us how they can… pic.twitter.com/IPgFaAkwiR

— The Green Party (@TheGreenParty) July 24, 2026

Labour’s candidate Craig ‘snubs’ Muslims

Labour’s candidate for mayor, Bev Craig OBE — currently the Manchester City Council leader — was criticised by the Green Party and Muslim community for “failing to show up at the Muslim hustings”.

The Greens’ candidate for Manchester mayor, Geraldine Coggins, went on the attack. Coggins called on Craig who wasn’t in attendance, to apologise to the Muslim community for ‘snubbing’ the hustings organised by the Forum of Muslim Organisations (FMO).

Craig is understood to have told FMO, the hustings’ organisers, she couldn’t attend “because she had a call with the government.” This was supposedly to do with her capacity as city council leader, but clearly demonstrates a lack of prioritisation for the community.

Muslim spaces have been attacked increasingly, with an average of one attack on a mosque every five days. In this context, FMO moderator Jawad Amin said at the hustings, “we are very disappointed”.

Green Party mayoral hopeful candidate Geraldine Coggins told the press:

Bev Craig must apologise to the Muslim community in Greater Manchester for this snub. This just piles on more insult to injury after years of complicity in a genocide they won’t even acknowledge. Bev Craig could have at least had the courage and courtesy to turn up this evening and explain her position.

Instead, she has said she had take a phone call from someone presumably she thinks is more important than the Muslim community. This is a pattern of behaviour from Bev Craig,  also not bothering to show up at the Big Green hustings and I’m told isn’t even going to the cost of living hustings, apparently the new Prime Minister’s big priority.

Greens slam ‘unserious’ Labour in Manchester mayoral election

Is Craig really coming for cost-of-living?

Bev Craig has also been invited to ACORN’s cost-of-living and housing hustings on Tuesday 28 July. However, the Canary understands that she is yet to confirm whether she’ll be attending.

In a video shared online, an ACORN Manchester activist said:

Bev Craig, we’re still waiting for you to confirm you’ll be coming to our cost-of-living hustings… We know that you’ve got a £70k salary as leader of Manchester City Council… so the cost-of-living might not be a big deal for you. But we, at ACORN Manchester, have lots of members who are very passionate about the fact that rents are going up in the city, we’ve got a tax on social security, means that the cost-of-living is a real, big deal for our members.

We know you’ve been answering questions on Reddit, from the comfort of your own home, about where you like to go for a run, all these other nice little bits… is this your plan for the rest ofGreater Manchester, these big glass skyscrapers, pushing up rents, pushing people out of their daily lives? …

Make sure you’re there, otherwise, you’re showing that you don’t care about the cost of living…

One spokesperson from ACORN Manchester told the Canary that Craig’s hustings swerve is “extremely disappointing.” They went on to tell the Canary:

The cost of living is a pressing issue for millions across our city-region. The fact some candidates can’t be bothered to attend a hustings on this shows how disconnected they are from the lives of residents of Greater Manchester.

Craig’s campaign website lists her manifesto and priorities, with the cost-of-living crisis listed first. At the top of her promises on the cost-of-living is her pledge to keep the £2 bus fare cap, which is due to expire in the budget in December. Seems great, at first glance — even if it is just more of the same.

However, her predecessor and longtime ally Andy Burnham — the man coronated Prime Minister by the British establishment last week — has shafted Craig’s proposal. Burnham has now promised £2 bus fare caps nationally, robbing Craig of her top-listed campaign promise. So much for political allyship.

 

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Reform refuse to face Greater Manchester voters

Bev Craig isn’t the only candidate being criticised for not turning up to hustings. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Reform UK candidate and serial landlord Sian Astley has been missing at multiple hustings too.

Astley was invited to FMO’s hustings on Muslim community safety. At the time of the event on Sunday, the FMO website still read:

Sian Astley – Reform UK (invited – awaiting response)

Perhaps this is less shocking than Bev Craig’s failure to turn up. Labour has historically enjoyed great support among Manchester’s Muslims. But the lack of even a pretence of wanting to be there speaks volumes. It’s a major failure of both parties to engage with some 13% of Greater Manchester’s population.

It is even less surprising that Astley, a landlord and property salesperson, also wasn’t interested in ACORN’s cost-of-living hustings. For someone who owns dozens of homes across Manchester, the cost of living for ordinary Mancs probably doesn’t factor highly.

For reference, Manchester is the most expensive place to rent in the North West. Astley is talking about checking the admittedly dodgy contract awarded by former mayor and now PM, Andy Burnham. But it seems pretty unlikely — given her party’s cosiness with big business — that it’s anything but that: cheap talk. (Maybe just with a side of anti-Labour retribution politics thrown in.)

Reform’s Manchester mayor candidate is a landlord, because of course

I’ll be Sian you later…

In a more dramatic fashion, however, Astley did show up to the Mill‘s election hustings on Monday 27th June — briefly. When she arrived, Astley found an independent mayoral candidate, Marcus Farmer, being told that he wasn’t invited to participate in the hustings. Astley recorded the ordeal and shared online:

… I have just arrived at The Mill debate in Manchester to see the independent candidate Marcus Farmer being refused entry. He was not even invited to the hustings. He has emailed The Mill several times. …

If we can’t all participate in a fair, inclusive, democratic debate, then none of us should.
So on that basis, I’m out.

However, journalists at the Mill had an explanation. Firstly, they say he wasn’t running when the hustings was set up. Secondly, nobody has heard of Farmer before. More importantly, however, the Mill wanted to shake things up by opening the hustings with policy-relevant questions addressed to individual candidates. (He seems to spend more time making ‘podcast’ videos with conservative Christian political commentator Baraka than making concrete pledges.) Since they didn’t know much about Farmer or his policies, they didn’t have anything specific prepared for him. And it’s this point that perhaps shook Astley.

She didn’t bow out of the debate just because she felt it was rigged against the independent candidate. It’s much more likely that Astley got spooked when they mentioned targeted questions.

The Mill had a question prepared for Astley, although she was unaware of it. It related to the fact that most of her campaign platform centres on stopping “illegal” migration, when these powers lie with the Home Office. She more than likely turned up, discovered that her policies had actually been scrutinised, and found a convenient way out.

 

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Featured image via the Canary

By Cameron Baillie