Reform UK has announced a former star of TV property shows as its candidate to replace Andy Burnham as Mayor of Greater Manchester.
Sian Astley has appeared on the BBC’s DIY SOS and Getting the Builders In, and worked behind the scenes as a project manager in the first two series of Your Home Made Perfect.
In 2012, she hosted her own Channel 5 show called Half Built Home in her role as a property and renovation expert.
But since being voted onto Manchester City Council on May 1, she has focused on politics as leader of the local authority’s Reform UK group.
Astley, whose first name is pronounced ‘cyan’ rather than ‘shan’, was elected to a seat on the council that Labour had previously held for 50 years.
In the mayoral race, she will be hoping to outperform Labour again to claim a position that was held by Andy Burnham since its creation.
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She said one of her first acts in the role would be to ‘open up the books on contracts Andy Burnham awarded during his time as Labour’s Mayor’.
They included ‘at least one’ given to a company ‘which made substantial donations to his Mayoral campaign’, she said.
This appears to be a reference to a story in the Times earlier this month, which covered the awarding of contracts by Greater Manchester Combined Authority to a media company which donated to Burnham’s 2021 campaign.
The GMCA said at the time that it has ‘rigorous procurement processes in place to ensure transparency and fairness when awarding these contracts’, and ‘at no point’ was the then-Mayor was involved in the decisions.
Astley will face off against Labour candidate Bev Craig, the leader of Manchester City Council, as well as Geraldine Coggins for the Green Party, Phil Eckersley for the Conservatives, Richard Kilpatrick for the Lib Dems and Marlon West for Restore.
Other candidates may be announced later.
Reform will be hoping to reverse its poor recent record in by-elections. Farage’s party lost to the Green Party in Gorton and Denton; to Plaid Cymru in Caerphilly; and to Labour in Makerfield.
Astley may face an additional challenge from the voting system, with this election set to use the ‘supplementary vote’ which gives people a first and second choice.
The Greater Manchester by-election, which was sparked by Andy Burnham winning in Makerfield, will take place on July 30.
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