The battle to replace Andy Burnham as the Mayor of Manchester will be a direct fight between Reform UK and the Green Party, Zack Polanski has said.
The Green leader launched the campaign for the mayoralty on Saturday and the party is expected to follow a similar strategy to that which saw the Greens take scores of London council seats from Labour at the local elections last month.
Geraldine Coggins, the leader of the Green group on Trafford Council, has been selected as the party's candidate and is expected to focus on affordable housing, rent controls and public ownership throughout the campaign.
She said: “Like Gorton and Denton, this is an election that we can win, and like Gorton and Denton, this is going to be a straight race between the Green Party with our message of joy and hope and the toxic divisive politics of Reform.”
Labour is not due to announce its Manchester mayor candidate until June 26.
In a message to supporters, Mr Polanski said: “The race for Greater Manchester mayor starts today and it’s Greens versus Reform.”
Mr Burnham startled British politics by the scale of his win in the Makerfield by-election, gaining 54.8% of the votes cast and outperforming opinion polls.
Reform’s Robert Kenyon trailed in second place with 34.5% of the vote.
Mr Burnham spoke of "some sadness" that his new job as an MP had brought to an end "my wonderful nine years as mayor of Greater Manchester".
He is now set to launch a leadership challenge against Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
The mayorship has been held by Mr Burnham since it was first contested in 2017 and he has won more than 60% of the vote in each of the three elections he has fought.
While his personal ratings are strong in the area, Labour’s popularity in Manchester has nosedived.
Sir Keir’s party lost hundreds of councillors to Reform on the right and the Greens on the left during the local elections on May 7.
In London, the Greens seized control of Hackney, Lewisham and Waltham Forest councils as Labour’s popularity plummeted.
The Manchester mayoral contest also comes just months after Labour was relegated into third place behind the Greens and Reform in the Gorton and Denton by-election.
Labour is not set to announce its candidate for the mayoral by-election until June 26.
Bev Craig, Manchester city council leader, is believed to be the front-runner for the poll, which could be held on July 30.
Under a timetable released by the party, applications for selection opened at 5pm on Friday and will close at 5pm on Sunday.
Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) will produce a longlist of candidates on June 22 and then a shortlist on June 23, with members voting from 6pm on June 23 until 12pm on June 26 and the result announced later that day.
A party source said: “Labour in power in Greater Manchester has seen real improvements for people’s everyday lives.
“From buses back in public control with capped fares, to thousands more homes and additional infrastructure built – all of this progress could be put at risk with Reform.
“The Greens can’t win this race. It’s time to pass the torch from Andy Burnham, who has delivered for the area, to the next transformational Labour mayor.”
The Green Party said it would be “campaigning hard” to win the Greater Manchester mayoralty.
A Green Party spokesperson said: “The Greens will be campaigning hard to win the by-election for the Greater Manchester mayoralty and, as we showed in the Gorton and Denton by-election and local elections in the area, it is going to be a clear Greens vs Reform race in this election.”
