Greater Manchester

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Statement of Persons Nominated

Matt Gallagher – Liberal Democrats – Website

Tony Lloyd – Labour – Website

Roy Warren – Independent

Michael Winstanley – Conservative – Website

Steve Woolfe – UKIP – Facebook

Tony Lloyd MP was unopposed by the time Labour got to the shortlist, so he is the Labour candidate, and the information in italics below is retained only for historical interest. For more on this strange situation see here and here. It is unclear if the longlisting or interviews cut out any other candidates.

BBC North West’s political editor Arif Ansari reported that former Wigan Councillor and parliamentary candidate Michael Winstanley was selected as the Conservative candidate. Arif also took time to ensure TopOfTheCops readers were aware of the full result, including that the defeated candidate was Trafford Councillor Michael Hyman.

The Manchester Evening News listed Helen Foster-Grime as being an interested Lib-Dem, and Ben Brierley informed the Police Foundation he planned to run as an Independent. Neither happened.

For Labour, Police Authority Chair Councillor Paul Murphy, has apparently withdrawn his expression of interest, but may feel pressed if there are no Labour candidates, and former MP for Rochdale Lorna Fitzsimons is thought to have decided against it, while Cllr Afzal Khan’s is reckoned by Michael Crick not to be running for Police and Crime Commissioner, preferring instead to seek nomination for the Bradford West by-election.

The MEN on 7 February listed Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Tony Lloyd MP as set to enter the race. If elected, he would have to stand down from Parliament, where he has been for 28 years. The paper says “Sources within the Labour party told the M.E.N: “Tony is seriously considering standing and will be making a decision within the next week or so.”” and adds that Labour is expected to declare its candidates in June.

Michael Crick has pointed out that “last August, the Manchester Evening News quoted Murphy as saying at a public meeting: “A police commissioner for Greater Manchester would have to do the work of 19 people, who I can tell you work very hard anyway. It would be preposterous. It also leaves an incredibly important role open to political policing and I’m sure the public would agree policing is far too important to become embroiled in politics. You can’t have someone who is in charge of the police making decisions with an eye on where his next votes are going to come from.””

Michael Crick had Mr Lloyd as confirmed as a candidate on 14 February, as did the Manchester Evening News, and if you dig down deep in the comments in the latter article there appears to be confirmation from Michael Felse that he will stand as an Independent. If this is the same Michael Felse who stood for Parliament for the English Democrats, before moving to Manchester and winning a contest as a drag Queen, then the election would have been interesting, but it didn’t happen.

Meanwhile, the GMP Authority have a section on Police and Crime Commissioners on their website.