Labour leader of Manchester City Council, Sir Richard Leese, denounces Manchester mayoral referendum

ByJonathan Humphries, Rebecca Pocklington & Ian Silvera

The Labour leader of Manchester City Council denounced the Manchester mayoral referendum at tonight’s election count.

Sir Richard Leese said that he did not think that adopting the mayoral leadership model would benefit the people of Manchester.

He told MM: “I think the question you have to ask is does Manchester need to be run in a different way? And there is no evidence to suggest that it should be.”

“The government has promised nothing in terms of powers so why should people change? Ultimately it is down to the people of Manchester.

“If that’s their decision we will make it work.”

If the referendum were to get the green light from Mancunians Sir Richard would have to stand if he wanted to be considered as a mayoral candidate.

He added: “I have asked people in Manchester in the past and they were not interested.”

“Part of the worry tonight is that they say they are not interested again and you get something like what’s happened in Salford but on a very small scale, which I hope isn’t the case.”

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