Manchester Evening News editor-in-chief Rob Irvine is stepping down after six years in the role, during which time he headed coverage of the arena terror bombing that killed 22 people.

The MEN has become the second biggest regional news website in the UK, behind only the Evening Standard, under Irvine’s editorship with more than 984,000 daily unique browsers (ABC figures for June last year).

The paper, which is owned by Trinity Mirror, helped to raise more than £2.5m to support families of the victims of the terror attack at a pop concert at Manchester Arena in May last year.