Manning was born in Harpurhey, Lancashire, and raised in Ancoats, both poor districts of Manchester, the second of three brothers and two sisters.[1][6] He had Russian Jewish ancestry on his father's side, as well as roots in Ireland, and was brought up a "strict Catholic".[7][8] He claimed, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph's Allison Pearson, that his paternal grandfather came from Sebastopol, and changed the family name from Blomberg.[9]