Bev Craig is a Labour

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

Burnage Burnage is a suburb of the city of Manchester in North West England, about 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 B ...

, Manchester, England, and Leader of Manchester City Council. Craig was elected Leader of Manchester City Council by the ruling Labour group of councillors in October 2021, and officially succeeded

Richard Leese Sir Richard Charles Leese, CBE (born 21 April 1951) is a former British politician who served as the leader of Manchester City Council from 1996 to 2021. He has been a member of the Labour Party since 1984. On 6 May 2017, Leese was appointe ...

at a full meeting of the council on his retirement on 1 December 2021.

Biography

Craig is originally from

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

and is the city council’s first female and LGBT leader. She grew up on a council estate just outside Belfast and moved to Manchester from Northern Ireland in 2003. She told the BBC: "I grew up in social housing and my family still rely on it. I know the value of

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

the safety net of a good quality home can give you when times are tough." and that she wanted "to reach a point where me being a woman and being gay is entirely uninteresting and unremarkable". She graduated from

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

in 2007 with a degree in politics and modern history and later gaining a postgraduate in Local Government Management from Warwick Business School and a MA in public policy and governance from UoM, both whilst working full time. She has held a range of jobs across local government, higher education and working for the trade union UNISON. Before she was appointed as deputy leader of the council in May 2021, she spent four years as executive member for adult services, health, wellbeing and inclusion. She was also deputy chair of Manchester Health and Care Commissioning and co-chair of the Manchester Local Care Organisation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, Bev Living people Labour Party (UK) councillors Councillors in Manchester Leaders of local authorities of England Politicians from Belfast LGBT politicians from England LGBT politicians from Northern Ireland 1985 births 21st-century LGBT people Women councillors in England Members of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority