Life in a Mayoral: piece of cake

So Labour and the Lib Dems were fully justified in switching their leafletting efforts to the general election:


Other names: Description (if any): Number of first preference
votes given for each candidate:		 Percentage (%) of
first preference votes:
ANSTEE Sean Brian The Conservative Party Candidate 128,752 22.72%
ASLAM Mohammad Independent 5,815 1.03%
BROPHY Jane Elisabeth Liberal Democrats 34,334 6.06%
BURNHAM Andy Labour and Co-operative Party 359,352 63.41%
FARMER Marcus Jonathan Independent 3,360 0.59%
MORRIS Stephen English Democrats - "Putting England First!" 11,115 1.96%
ODZE Shneur Zalman UK Independence Party (UKIP) 10,583 1.87%
PATTERSON Will The Green Party 13,424 2.37%
Total number of first preference votes: 566,735

Big Andy shows the rest of the country how it's done... compare this with the 46% that Labour achieved in my back of the envelope sum of their 2015 vote.

Update 8/5/2017: As pundits are starting to notice that Burnham smashed it and are wondering why, here are a few things that stood out from my perspective as a humble voter:
  • Burnham's campaign was far more visible than all the other candidates put together - online especially but also for example in adverts in the Manchester Weekly News.
  • Burnham is of course a much bigger name, with a superior track record to advertise. The "strong experienced voice" line rang true, because it is true.
  •  I doubt many people watched the TV hustings, but for those who did it was obvious that Burnham plays in a different league to the others (though Anstee put in a creditable performance to be fair).
  • His proposals were clearly far better thought through than any of the others.
Ultimately I don't think there's a huge amount Labour can learn from his performance, despite how far he outperformed the party at large. To stoop to a football analogy: if Manchester United get drawn against Altrincham FC, it's shouldn't come as a surprise when United post a big victory*.


(*) although as @deGooder wisely notes, that's only true if Van Gaal isn't in charge.

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