Lexit and no more mayor: Tory candidate's plan for Leigh and Atherton

Former Wigan town mayor Michael Winstanley is vying to replace Tory MP James Grundy who is not seeking re-election in the seat he took from Labour in Leigh and Atherton for the first time ever in 2019. 

After being selected as the Conservative candidate, Mr Winstanley, 53, said he had always been against the creation of the Greater Manchester mayoral role, currently occupied by Andy Burnham and called for a referendum on whether it should be continued.

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Mr Winstanley called for Leigh and Atherton to be cut adrift from Wigan Council (Image: Michael Winstanley)
“If we are going to have one, there should be a proper structure to hold him to account,” he said. “There used to be four scrutiny committees on the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, but now there is only one, and the fire authority has been abolished. 

“And he [Andy Burnham] claims credit for whatever  Government initiative that comes out, for example the £2 limit on bus fares, which was a national initiative. 

“All he’s done since he came into office is increased the mayoral precept [included in the council tax to pay for services like fire and police] so that people are worse off. 

“If you want a blueprint for what Sir Keir Starmer would do if he came into power, look at what Andy Burnham is doing in Greater Manchester.”

Mr Winstanley has previously stood unsuccessfully for parliament in Bolton North East (in 2001); Blackpool South (in 2005) and in Wigan (2010), and has served as a councillor for Orrell from in 2000 to 2011 and 2011 to 2022.

He pointed to millions of pounds which will be poured into Leigh and Atherton as successes of the outgoing MP Mr Grundy.

These include £20m from the Future Towns Fund; £11.5m from the Leveling Up Fund for the regeneration of Leigh town centre; £13m for Wigan and Leigh College as part of its bid to become part of the new Greater Manchester Institute of Technology; £1m to regenerate Tyldesley town centre, via the community-led Heritage Action Zone and the £20m expansion at Leigh Infirmary.

Mr Winstanley believes a Leigh Council should operate out of Leigh town hall (Image: Leigh Journal)
Mr Winstanley went on: “People in Leigh and Atherton have been let down by a lack of ambition by Wigan Council. They want to be cut adrift with their own council in Leigh town hall, which is still standing. 

“If there is anything that demonstrates Labour’s incompetence, it’s the way they run this council. We are reaping the results of 50 years of failure.

“We’ve been held back [in Leigh and Atherton] because the council wasn’t ready for the funding which has come in over the last four years. Millions and millions have been allocated across Leigh and Atherton by the Government – far more than was ever put in by Labour before 2010, but they’ve been too slow to do anything.”

Mr Winstanley was born and grew up in Ashton-in-Makerfield where he lives, just yards from the border of the constituency he is bidding to represent in Westminster.

He has previously served as a councillor for Wigan for a total of 16 years, part of which was as leader of the opposition Conservative group. He was the ceremonial mayor in the 2010-11 year.

Mr Winstanley has spent his entire working career in the NHS is currently in its business services authority which processes pensions and runs the electronic data.

Andy Burnham's office said Mr Winstanley's claims are 'not based on fact or truth' (Image: GMCA)
Responding, a spokesperson for Andy Burnham said: “The candidate for Leigh and Atherton seems to be following his national colleagues in making claims  that are simply not based on fact or truth.”

They said that the four Greater Manchester scrutiny committee were scrapped following an independent review with the agreement of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats as well as Labour.

They also said that the Greater Manchester mayoral role was created by the Conservatives under George Osborne’s devolution deal.

“The £2 bus fares were introduced by Andy Burnham in March of 2022 and followed by the Government a few months later,” they said. “So Mr Winstanley is just plain wrong.”

Cllr Cunliffe (Image: Wigan Council)
Responding to  Mr Winstanley’s comments, the deputy leader of Wigan council Coun Keith Cunliffe said: “We’ve had a Conservative MP for Leigh for the last five years and nothing has happened [regarding Leigh and Atherton separating from Wigan].

“There is nothing Wigan council can do, because it would need an act of parliament. It’s a bit ironic that a Conservative MP and candidate are calling for this, because Wigan council was created in 1974 by a Tory government and Greater Manchester was crated in the 1980s, again by a Conservative Government.

“So Mr Winstanley is asking for something to be reversed which his party has done twice. It is also worth pointing out that such an authority that Mr Winstanley is talking about, would be very small, perhaps about 70,000 people.

“In small authorities council tax for residents tends to be a lot higher. I think people in Leigh and Wigan are much more concerned about the cost of living crisis, their mortgage payments and higher energy bills.”

Meanwhile, Wigan’s Labour MP Lisa Nandy has previously accused Conservatives of ‘losing the plot’ over proposals for ‘Lexit’ – the removal of Leigh and Atherton from Wigan. She has rejected the idea that Labour-run Wigan ‘wasn’t doing anything for Leigh’.

She said: “There’s always been a healthy rivalry between us and I’m perfectly happy to engage in that as well. But there’s been investment into things like the Turnpike Gallery in Leigh, the arts and culture renaissance that the council is trying to kickstart, with a bit of help now from the Arts Council, has been very focused on Leigh as the main driver of that.”