Tony Lloyd - Political Career - Police and Crime Commissioner

Police and Crime Commissioner

Lloyd was described by Andrew Roth of The Guardian as a "realistic regionalist"; he supported the creation of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority in 2011, but disagreed that Greater Manchester should have an elected mayor. On 15 February 2012, Lloyd announced his intention to resign as a Member of Parliament to stand as a candidate for the directly-elected Police and Crime Commissioner for Greater Manchester. Lloyd said he was willing to leave the Manchester Central constituency — a Labour safe seat — for the PCC role because in "all the years I have been a MP, one of the abiding issues that people raised with me was fear of crime". The resulting Manchester Central by-election, 2012 was scheduled for the same November polling day. In the Police and Crime Commissioner elections on 15 November 2012, Lloyd was elected as Greater Manchester's inaugural Police and Crime Commissioner, winning with 139,437 votes, or a share of 51.23%, prompting the Manchester Evening News to quip he had become "the most powerful man in Greater Manchester".

As Police and Crime Commissioner for Greater Manchester, Lloyd is one of the Labour Party's highest-profile commissioners, overseeing one of the largest police services in England and Wales outside of Greater London. He will earn £100,000 per year, the largest figure of any English or Welsh Police and Crime Commissioner. He is based at Salford Civic Centre and is required to devise a five-year strategic plan for Greater Manchester Police and hold Sir Peter Fahy, the force's Chief constable, to account. On hearing the news that Lloyd had won the election, Fahy said "one of the key roles of the PCC was negotiating and influencing the other local authorities, the health service, businesses and other organisations ... We will be expecting him to fight for GMP at a national level with the Home Office over resourcing and changes to legislation".