Politics in Manchester

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Manchester Town Hall is an example of the Victorian architecture found in Manchester and is the home of Manchester City Council. Manchester Town Hall from Lloyd St.jpg
Manchester Town Hall is an example of the Victorian architecture found in Manchester and is the home of Manchester City Council.

The City of Manchester forms part of the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, which had its county council abolished (along with the other metropolitan counties) in 1986. Manchester consists of several districts, but these districts do not represent a tier of government (though the names are used as political wards).

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Political history

Manchester has long been associated with radical politics, including the Peterloo Massacre in 1819; the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League in 1839, as well as being the birthplace to some of the most influential works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Manchester currently sits on the left of the political spectrum, as shown by the make up of its City Council. The north of the city is considered a Labour stronghold , while the southern suburbs tend to be more hospitable to other parties. The last Conservative MP lost his seat in 1987.

Manchester City Council

Manchester City Council is the local authority for the metropolitan borough of Manchester. The borough is divided into 32 wards, which elect a total of 96 councillors, three for each ward. Currently, the council is controlled by the Labour Party and is led by Richard Leese. The opposition is formed by the Liberal Democrats and led by former Manchester MP John Leech.

PartySeats
25 July 2019
Labour 92
Liberal Democrats 3
Green 0
Conservative 0
Independent 1

Districts in the City of Manchester

Parishes

There is only one civil parish in the metropolitan borough, Ringway, which was added in 1974. The entire area of the pre-1974 county borough is an unparished area.

North West Regional Assembly

Whilst not a directly elected body, the North West Regional Assembly is responsible for promoting the economic, environmental and social well-being of the North West England region. It is made up of representatives from councils across the region, business organisations, public sector agencies, education and training bodies, trade unions and co-operatives and the voluntary and community sector.

UK Parliament

There are five UK Parliamentary constituencies which cover the City of Manchester, each of which elects one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons in London. These constituencies and their current MPs are:

European Parliament

North West England, as a single EU constituency, elected 8 representatives to the European Parliament. At the time of Britain's withdrawal from the European Union the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) for the North West were:

Constituency Member of the European Parliament National political party European political party European Parliament group Year first elected [Note 2] WebsiteParliamentary profile
North West England Jane Brophy Liberal Democrats Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party Renew Europe 2019 Website Profile Jane MMU for Wiki (cropped).jpg
David Bull Brexit Party None Non-Inscrits 2019 Website Profile David Bull 2019 (cropped).jpg
Chris Davies Liberal Democrats Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party Renew Europe 1999
[Note 1]
Profile Chris Davies 01.JPG
Gina Dowding Green Party of England and Wales European Green Party The Greens - European Free Alliance 2019 Profile Gina Dowding Lancaster (cropped).jpg
Claire Fox Brexit Party None Non-Inscrits 2019 Profile Claire Fox of Moral Maze (cropped).png
Theresa Griffin Labour Party Party of European Socialists Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats 2014 Website Profile Theresa Griffin MEP - 2014.jpg
Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen Brexit Party None Non-Inscrits 2019 Profile
Julie Ward Labour Party Party of European Socialists Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats 2014 Website Profile Julie Ward MEP.jpg
Notes
  1. ^
    1: Defeated in 2014, re-elected in 2019.

Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county which surrounds the City of Manchester. Including the City of Manchester, Greater Manchester is made up of ten metropolitan boroughs, with each borough having its own council. The ten boroughs are shown in the following map.

NumberBoroughMapNumberBorough
1 City of Manchester
GreaterManchesterNumbered.pngCity of ManchesterMetropolitan Borough of TamesideMetropolitan Borough of Trafford
6 Metropolitan Borough of Bury
2 Metropolitan Borough of Stockport 7 Metropolitan Borough of Bolton
3 Metropolitan Borough of Tameside 8 Metropolitan Borough of Wigan
4 Metropolitan Borough of Oldham 9 City of Salford
5 Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale 10 Metropolitan Borough of Trafford

The larger towns in the Greater Manchester county include Altrincham, Ashton-under-Lyne, Bolton, Bury, Cheadle, Droylsden, Hyde, Middleton, Oldham, Rochdale, Sale, Stalybridge, Stockport, Stretford and Wigan.

Whilst the county does not have its own tier of government, there are some functions of government organised at the county level.

County-wide functions

Greater Manchester County Council was the top-tier local government body from 1974 to its abolition in 1986. The county still arranges some amenities and services on a county-wide basis. This is largely overseen by Association of Greater Manchester Authorities which represents the ten local authorities of the county, and acts as a body by which co-ordination and county-wide strategies can operate. Greater Manchester Police and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service offer law enforcement and fire protection, while public transport is the responsibility of Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM). There is also the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority.

AGMA also funds the Greater Manchester County Records Office, whose main function is to collect, store, and make available for research the written heritage of the County, including census and General register office index material.

Law enforcement

The City of Manchester is policed by the Greater Manchester Police, who have their headquarters at Chester House in Trafford. [1] The main police station in central Manchester is at Bootle Street, near to Albert Square. There are other stations in Salford, Hulme, Collyhurst, Withington, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, and Longsight. Manchester's railways are policed by the nationwide British Transport Police.

Manchester had its own police force until 1974, when its force and the lower divisions of Lancashire Constabulary merged to form the Greater Manchester Police. Each of the ten metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester has a Division within the county force.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater Manchester</span> County of England

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. The county was created on 1 April 1974, as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, and has been covered by a combined authority on 1 April 2011. Greater Manchester is formed from parts of the historic counties of Cheshire, Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metropolitan county</span> Type of county-level administrative division of England

Metropolitan counties are a type of county-level administrative division of England. There are six metropolitan counties, which each cover large urban areas, with populations between 1 and 3 million. They were created in 1974 and are each divided into several metropolitan districts or boroughs. Following the abolition of metropolitan county councils in 1986, metropolitan counties no longer form a part of local government in England. Most of their functions were devolved to the metropolitan boroughs, making the boroughs effectively unitary authorities; any remaining functions were taken over by joint boards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trafford</span> Greater Manchester local authority district

Trafford is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, with an estimated population of 235,493 in 2017. It covers 41 square miles (106 km2) and includes the area of Old Trafford and the towns of Altrincham, Stretford, Urmston, Partington and Sale. The borough was formed in 1974 as a merger of six former districts and part of a seventh. The River Mersey flows through the borough, separating North Trafford from South Trafford, and the historic counties of Lancashire and Cheshire. Trafford is the fifth-most populous district in Greater Manchester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metropolitan Borough of Wigan</span> Borough of Greater Manchester, England

The Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in North West England. It is named after the main settlement of Wigan but covers a far larger area, extending up to 9 miles eastwards, including the towns of Atherton, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Golborne, Hindley, Ince-in-Makerfield, Leigh and Tyldesley. The borough also covers the villages and suburbs of Abram, Aspull, Astley, Bryn, Hindley Green, Lowton, Mosley Common, Orrell, Pemberton, Shevington, Standish, Winstanley and Worsley Mesnes. The borough is also the second-most populous district in Greater Manchester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City of Salford</span> Borough and City in Greater Manchester, England

The City of Salford is a metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. The borough is named after its main settlement, Salford and extends its coverage to the towns of Eccles, Swinton, Walkden and Pendlebury. The borough has a population of 270,000, and is administered from the Salford Civic Centre in Swinton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government of Birmingham</span>

This article is about the government of Birmingham, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Local Government Act 1985</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Local Government Act 1985 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Its main effect was to abolish the six county councils of the metropolitan counties that had been set up in 1974, 11 years earlier, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with the Greater London Council that had been established in 1965. In their place many single purpose authorities known collectively as 'joint authorities' were established for fire service, police and passenger transport. An ad hoc education authority was established for Inner London and a planning authority for Greater London. The legislation permitted councils to form 'joint arrangements' for waste disposal and other services that they wished to provide together. Time-limited residuary bodies were created to dispose of the assets of the former authorities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport for Greater Manchester</span> Public transport organisation in Greater Manchester in North West England

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is a local government body responsible for co-ordinating transport services throughout Greater Manchester in North West England. It is an executive arm of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), the city region's administrative authority. The strategies and policies of Transport for Greater Manchester are set by the GMCA and its Greater Manchester Transport Committee (GMTC). The committee is made up of 33 councillors appointed from the ten Greater Manchester boroughs, as well as the Mayor of Greater Manchester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater Manchester County Council</span> Local government administrative body for Greater Manchester from 1974 to 1986

The Greater Manchester County Council (GMCC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater Manchester from 1974 to 1986. A strategic authority, with responsibilities for roads, public transport, planning, emergency services and waste disposal, it was composed of 106 directly elected members drawn from the ten metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester. The Greater Manchester County Council shared power with ten lower-tier district councils, each of which directed local matters. It was also known as the Greater Manchester Council (GMC) and the Greater Manchester Metropolitan County Council (GMMCC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burnage</span> Human settlement in England

Burnage is a suburb of Manchester in Greater Manchester, North West England, about 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Manchester city centre and bisected by the dual carriageway of Kingsway. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, the population of the Burnage Ward at the 2011 census was 15,227. It lies between Withington to the west, Levenshulme to the north, Heaton Chapel to the east and Didsbury and Heaton Mersey to the south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchester Withington (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1918 onwards

Manchester Withington is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Jeff Smith of Labour. Of the 30 seats with the highest percentage of winning majority in 2017, the seat ranks 25th with a 55.7% margin, and is the only one of the twenty nine of these seats won by the Labour Party in which the second-placed candidate was a Liberal Democrat, rather than Conservative. This is despite being a Conservative seat right up to 1987, then becoming relatively safely Labour, then Liberal Democrat from 2005 to 2015 before they lost on a large swing in 2015, after which Smith substantially increased his majority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stretford and Urmston (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1997 onwards

Stretford and Urmston is a constituency in Greater Manchester represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since a 2022 by-election by Andrew Western, a Labour MP.

Salford City Council elections are generally held three years out of every four, with a third of the council being elected each time. Salford City Council is the local authority for the metropolitan borough of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. Since the last boundary changes in 2020, 60 councillors have been elected from 20 wards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">County Borough of Salford</span> Former district of England

Salford was, from 1844 to 1974, a local government district in the county of Lancashire in the northwest of England, covering the city of Salford. It was granted city status in 1926.

Stretford was a parliamentary constituency in North West England, which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oldham Council</span>

Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, branded and commonly referred to as Oldham Council, is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of ten in Greater Manchester and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the majority of local government services in Oldham. It is composed of 60 councillors, three for each of the 20 electoral wards of the borough.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Greater Manchester mayoral election</span> Mayoral election in Greater Manchester, England

The 2021 Greater Manchester mayoral election was held on 6 May 2021 to elect the mayor of Greater Manchester. This election, alongside other local and mayoral elections across England and Wales, was originally scheduled to take place on 7 May 2020, but was delayed by the UK Government on 13 March 2020, due to the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic. The election took place on the same day as council elections within the city-region, including the election for the mayor of Salford, as well as elections across England and Wales. It was the second election to the position of mayor. It used the supplementary vote as its electoral system.

The 2022 Salford City Council election took place on 5 May 2022 along with other local elections across the United Kingdom. One third—20 out of 60—of councillor seats on Salford City Council were up for election.

The 2023 Salford City Council elections are scheduled to take place on 4 May 2023 alongside other local elections across the United Kingdom. One third of seats (20) on Salford City Council will be up for election.

References

  1. Dowling, Nicola (26 March 2007). "Police shake-up revealed". Manchester Evening News . Guardian Media Group . Retrieved 21 October 2008.