Andy Burnham looks at education, housing and transport as he is re-elected as Greater Manchester mayor

The former Leigh MP received 63.4 per cent of the vote, with Conservative Laura Evans taking second place with 10.39 per cent.

Turnout across Greater Manchester was 32.05 per cent.

In Wigan, there were 67,975 valid votes, with 44,927 of those (66.1 per cent) for Mr Burnham. The turnout in Wigan was 27.61 per cent.

After being re-elected, he said: “Britain desperately needs a new Government and a fresh start and from here, we will work hard to bring that change about.”

Mr Burnham said the “Westminster one size fits all approach” has not worked for parents in Harpurhey, “trapped in debt because of the pernicious combination of the housing and the benefit system” or for communities “suffering the after effects of youth violence and struggling to make sense of it”.

He added: “And the truth is this. If you have an education system overly focused on the university route, you will leave some young people growing up without hope. If you have a benefit system overly focused on sanctions rather than support, you will end up with a growing mental health crisis.

“And if housing policy is exclusively focused on promoting home ownership, you will leave millions trapped in a housing crisis. Greater Manchester is ready to break out of this. Devolution in England is working and these elections show voters are buying into it, but it is time now to go much further.

“My new mission will be to give everyone growing up here an equal alternative to the university route. So all our young people have a path in life and hope in their heart. And my new plea to Westminster is to give us the powers to free ourselves from the grip of the housing crisis and let us build a benefit system that helps people move forward rather than holds them back.

Mr Burnham added that he will take the result as an “instruction to complete the building of a public transport system that befits a city region of our stature”.

“And I will do it within this new mayoral term, uniting bike, bus, tram and train in a single integrated system,” he said.

The full breakdown of the results: Jake Austin (Liberal Democrats) 4.25 per cent; Dan Barker (Reform UK) 7.46 per cent; Nick Buckley (independent) 7.58 per cent; Andy Burnham (Labour and Co-operative Party) 63.4 per cent; Laura Evans (Conservatives) 10.39 per cent; Hannah Spencer (Green Party) 6.92 per cent.