Greens announce councillor as candidate for mayor
Trafford CouncilThe Green Party has announced its candidate in the by-election for the Greater Manchester mayoralty triggered by Andy Burnham's election as an MP.
Labour is pitching the contest as a two-horse race between Labour and Reform UK, but the Greens are looking to build on their success in the Gorton and Denton by-election with a strong challenge of their own.
The Greens have named Trafford Council councillor Geraldine Coggins as their candidate.
Coggins told supporters at a launch event in Manchester it was a straight contest between the Greens and Nigel Farage's Reform UK party as she pledged to improve transport, housing and choose "people and planet over profits".
The by-election is scheduled to take place on 30 July, with Labour set to announce its candidate on Friday.
Coggins, a councillor for Trafford since 2018 who is originally from Ireland, is a published academic with a background in leadership, public finance and strategic decision-making, the party said.
Party leader Zack Polanski said: "We know that we need a Green mayor who will build affordable social and council housing, that will lobby and demand from national government rent controls that will look after our high streets and turn them back into the thriving, inclusive, accessible communities that we know that they sometimes can be, and they must always be."
Coggins drew parallels to the Gorton and Denton by-election that saw Hannah Spencer become a Green MP earlier this year.
"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," she said.
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