UPDATED
Green Party Scores Upset Win in UK Election in Blow to Labour, Far-Right Reform
“Instead of working for a nice life, we’re working to line the pockets of billionaires,” victorious Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer said during her victory speech. “We’re being bled dry.”
Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer visits Green Party volunteers at St Agnes Primary School polling station on February 26, 2026 in Manchester, England.
(Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Brad Reed
Feb 27, 2026
Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer on Thursday won an upset victory in a byelection in the Gorton and Denton constituency, delivering a blow to both Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the far-right Reform Party led by Nigel Farage.
As reported by the Guardian, Spencer, a local plumber, won by overturning a 13,000-vote majority that the Labour Party achieved in the 2024 general election.
In fact, Labour fell to third place in the Thursday election, winning 9,364 votes, compared to 14,980 votes for the Greens and 10,578 votes for Reform.
In her victory speech, Spencer emphasized major class divides in the UK, where she said people are working increasingly harder for fewer benefits.
“Working hard used to get you something,” she said. “It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere. But now—working hard? What does that get you?... Instead of working for a nice life, we’re working to line the pockets of billionaires. We’re being bled dry.”
The Green Party said Spencer’s victory showed it was now a viable force in national elections, projecting that it is “on track to win over a hundred seats at the next general election, if the historic swing achieved to win Gorton and Denton is replicated nationwide.”
Green Party leader Zack Polanski hailed the election result and predicted “a tidal wave of new Green MPs” in future elections should current trends continue.
“When I was elected Leader of the Greens I said we were here to replace Labour and I meant it,” Polanski said. “Hannah was a fantastic candidate and I know she’ll make a brilliant MP.”
Starmer, who has pushed the Labour Party to the right on issues such as immigration and transgender rights during his tenure, reacted bitterly to the defeat in a letter he sent to other Labour MPs.
“The result in Gorton and Denton is deeply disappointing,” Starmer wrote. “Instead of a Labour MP who can be a local champion delivering for Gorton and Denton alongside a Labour Government and a Labour mayor, the people of Gorton and Denton now have a representative who is more interested in dividing people than uniting them.”
Starmer, whose job approval rating in polls is consistently under 20%, also predicted that “over the coming months, people will feel the benefit of the long-term decisions this government is taking.”
Socialist commentator Owen Jones, a longtime Starmer critic, gloated over the result in a social media post in which he reminded followers of Starmer’s past statement that left-wing voters could “leave” if they didn’t like the changes he was making to Labour.
“OK, Keir Starmer, we did as you asked us!” he wrote. “Happy now?”
UK Labour party loses parliamentary seat to left-wing Greens
By AFP
February 27, 2026
Left-wing Greens beat the Britain's ruling Labour party in crunch local polls - Copyright AFP Paul ELLIS
Peter HUTCHISON
Britain’s ruling Labour party on Friday lost a crunch local poll in one of its traditional northern English heartlands to the left-wing Greens, adding to the woes of unpopular Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Labour also finished behind the hard-right Reform UK party in the by-election for the parliamentary seat of Gorton and Denton in Manchester, as the country’s traditional two-party system fractures.
The third-place finish in a seat that Labour has dominated for decades is likely to increase chatter about how much longer the 63-year-old Starmer can stay in office.
It also suggests that Britons appear more willing to look towards insurgent parties for answers on long-standing, hot-button issues like the high cost of living and irregular immigration.
Labour won the constituency with almost 51 percent of the vote at the July 2024 general election that swept Starmer to power and ousted the Conservatives from 14 consecutive years in office.
But the government has since been beset by numerous policy reversals and several rows, including over the appointment of Peter Mandelson, an associate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as Britain’s ambassador to Washington.
Polls suggest Starmer is the most unpopular British prime minister since surveys began and earlier this month he faced down calls from within his own party to resign.
Hannah Spencer, a 34-year-old plumber and plasterer won with almost 15,000 votes and becomes the Green’s fifth MP in the 650-seat British parliament.
Reform candidate Matt Goodwin, a 44-year-old political scientist registered some 10,500 votes, while Labour won just over 9,300.
The vote was triggered by the resignation of former Labour MP Andrew Gwynne on health grounds.
Starmer has spent much of his time in office targeting Reform, which leads national polls, by toughening Labour’s immigration policies.
But the stance has alienated elements of the party’s left-wing base and young people, who appear to be turning towards the Greens, whose leader Zack Polanski is also appealing to pro-Palestinian supporters.
“The Green Party is offering hope to the wider society, marginalised people, and I think they’re the choice for working people,” writer Matt Alton, 31, told AFP on Thursday after casting his ballot.
Anti-immigration Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, have led national surveys for over a year. The next general election is not expected until 2029.
Labour’s candidate, Angeliki Stogia, was selected to run after the party’s ruling body blocked the candidacy of popular Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.
Burnham’s bid to become an MP was widely seen as a precursor for a potential leadership challenge from the party’s left against Starmer, who hails from the party’s centre right.
Starmer faces another critical period in May with elections in Scotland, Wales and London that pollsters predict will be painful for Labour.
Hannah Spencer is the first Green MP in the north of England
The Green Party has won the Gorton and Denton by-election with a majority of more than 4,000.
The Green Party’s Hannah Spencer picked up 40.6 per cent of the vote, beating both Reform and Labour in what was a three-way contest for the Greater Manchester constituency.
This marks the first time the Green Party has ever won a parliamentary by-election and the first time they have ever won a seat in the north of England.
Reform came second with 28.7 per cent of the vote. Labour came third with 25.4 per cent.
The full breakdown of the results was as followed.
Green Hannah Spencer 14,980
Reform Matt Goodwin 10,578
Labour Angeliki Stogia 9364
Conservative Charlotte Cadden 706
Liberal Democrats Jackie Pearcey 653
Monster Raving Loony Sir Oink A-Lot 159
Advance UK Nick Buckley 154
Rejoin EU Joseph O’Meachair 98
Libertarian Dan Clarke 47
SDP Sebastian Moore 46
Communist League Hugo Wils 29
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Labour place third in Gorton and Denton by-election as Greens gain seat
Labour have been defeated in the Gorton and Denton by-election, losing to the Green Party who won with a majority of over 4,000 votes, after battling out in what polls had suggested was a knife edge fight across the campaign period.
The by-election was triggered by the resignation of the former suspended Labour MP Andrew Gwynne on health grounds, leaving the seat vacant less than two years after the constituency was first contested at the 2024 general election.
Green candidate Hannah Spencer won the by election with 14,908 votes, beating Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia who placed third with 9,364 votes. Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin secured 10,578 votes.
The loss brings Labour a heavy blow, losing a historic constituency, which in the previous 2024 election they had won with a majority of over 13,000 – and marking the first time the party has come third in a by-election it was defending since Mitcham and Morden in 1982.
Chair of the Labour Party Anna Turley said the result was “clearly disappointing” and said: “By-elections are normally difficult for the party of government, and this election was no different.
“We have had thousands of conversations over the last few weeks and we know the majority of voters here did not want the poisonous politics of Nigel Farage and Reform.
“We will continue to deliver a programme for government that tackles the cost of living crisis families are facing, creates opportunities for young people and invests in our public services.
“The politics of anger and easy answers offered by the Greens and Reform won’t deliver this.
“We will move forwards with a relentless focus on delivering the renewal communities across Britain want to see.”
The by-election came after several tough weeks for the Labour Party, with the resignation of the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney mid-campaign over advising the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite known links to disgraced pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, alongside Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s call for the Prime Minister to stand down over the Mandelson saga.
Many commentators had said that popularity for Labour would take too much of a hit to see off competitors in Gorton and Denton in the wake of the scandal, although activists said the issue had rarely been brought up on the doorstep.
Labour put up a strong fight on the campaign trail, reaching over 10,000 contacts with heights of 1000 activists out on the doorstep on polling day.
However, Labour was met with significant Green support across the constituency, entering the count knowing this by-election was going to be very difficult to call.
‘Absoute disaster for Labour’
A spokesperson for centre-left group Mainstream said: “The Gorton and Denton result is an absolute disaster for Labour. Clearly, we now risk no longer being seen as the natural home for progressive voters.
“This loss was avoidable. Angeliki, members and our party staff worked tirelessly, but our leader and sections of the NEC blocked the one candidate who could have won it for us. That decision now looks like a catastrophic error.
‘Labour leadership turned back on progressive majority’
Director of campaign group Compass Neil Lawson said the result proved there is “appetite in Britain for a bold progressive agenda for big change”.
He said: “Labour’s leadership has turned its back on the nation’s progressive majority and blocked the only candidate – in Andy Burnham – who could have spoken for this hopeful future.
“The two party stranglehold on the UK’s politics looks broken. Only a progressive alliance can defeat Reform and the causes of Reform.”
‘It’s time for a complete change in direction’
Left-wing pressure group Momentum hit out at the decision to block Andy Burnham from standing as the Labour candidate in the by-election and urged the leadership to make a “complete change in direction” to prevent defeats across the country in May’s local and devolved elections.
Co-chair Alex Charilaou said: “Losing a safe seat like Gorton and Denton could have been prevented if Andy Burnham wasn’t blocked from standing.
“Hundreds of hardworking Labour candidates up and down the country could face defeat in May. It’s time for a complete change in direction: the control-freakery and top-down politics has to end.”
UK Greens trounce far right in key election as Labour fall to disastrous third place
Two insurgent parties with a tiny number of MPs between them have shunted Britain's governing party into a humiliating defeat.
The Green Party of England and Wales has won a stunning victory in the most pivotal UK by-election in years, establishing itself as a major political force and beating Nigel Farage's far-right Reform UK into second place while the governing Labour Party suffered a humiliating defeat.
Held to fill the greater Manchester seat of Gorton and Denton, which was vacated by a Labour MP who resigned over racist and sexist WhatsApp messages about his party colleagues, the by-election pitted the UK’s strongest far-right and left-wing parties directly against each other.
In the final result, the Greens' Hannah Spencer won with 14,980 votes, beating Reform UK's Matt Goodwin on 10,578 and Labour's Angeliki Stogia on 9,364.
While they only have a combined 13 seats in the House of Commons, Reform and the Greens are increasingly dominating Britain’s political discourse, and Thursday’s result – coming off the back of the highest turnout in any by-election since 1983 – will fuel their overlapping claims that the traditionally dominant parties are in irreversible decline.
A new left rises
In her victory speech, Spencer stressed the economic difficulties faced by everyday people "working to fill the pockets of billionaires" and stressed the Greens' strong left-wing message of fairness for working-class people who have seen their neighbourhoods and life chances alike go into decline while working ever harder to maintain their standard of living.
"Everybody should get a nice life," she said. "And clearly I'm not the only person who thinks that."
Spencer also called out "politicians and divisive figures" who she said had scapegoated the area's large Muslim population and tried to turn white working-class locals against them.
"My Muslim neighbours are just like me: human," she said.
Having won four seats at the last general election, its best ever result, the Green Party has surged in the polls since choosing a new leader, Zack Polanski, last September.
Polanski was originally a member of the more centrist Liberal Democrats, but stormed out of the party in 2016 when he failed to make the shortlist of candidates to fight a pivotal by-election. Now an elected member of the London Assembly, he is highly popular on social media, where he projects himself as a cheerful and charismatic left-populist.
While not departing from the Greens' baseline environmentalism, his most attention-grabbing proposals include withdrawing the UK from NATO, imposing higher taxes on the wealthy, and nationalising various utilities and services. He has also been a vociferous critic of Israel's war in Gaza.
The Greens’ meteoric polling surge under his leadership has eclipsed an attempted comeback by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose attempt to form a new left-wing political force named Your Party has been dogged by financial and organisational chaos as well as a rift between him and co-founder Zarah Sultana – who, like Polanski, is highly popular with the online left.
Having quit the Labour Party in 2025 over the government's political direction and its stance on the war in Gaza, she now argues that the British government should "nationalise the entire economy". It is unclear when Your Party will begin contesting elections.
Extremists on the march
Despite only returning a handful of MPs at the last general election, Reform UK has consistently led nationwide opinion polls for some time, and achieved a wave of victories in local elections across England in May 2025. Pollsters estimate that the UK's first-past-the-post electoral system would have a high chance of forming a majority government were an election held tomorrow.
However, it has suffered from a number of disastrous candidate vetting failures and a steady flow of defections and resignations by both MPs and local councillors, many of whom have left the party after making outlandish or racist public statements.
The party’s ongoing effort to refute allegations of extremism meant it was something of a surprise when it decided to fight the Gorton and Denton contest with Goodwin, who has built a substantial personal following while espousing some of the most extreme views of any major party candidate in recent British political history.
Goodwin first came to public prominence in the 2010s as an academic studying the rise of right-wing populism, in particular Islamophobia. However, in the years following the UK's departure from the EU, he has morphed from a critic of right-wing movements and parties into an out-and-out advocate of far-right ideas.
With tens of thousands of followers on social media and Substack as well as a show on right-wing TV channel GB News, Goodwin argues that immigration from non-European countries and cultures poses an existential threat to British and Western civilisation.
A leading proponent of the widely circulated right-wing claim that "London is over" thanks to rampant violent crime and the "displacement" of white British residents – claims easily proven untrue by abundant publicly available evidence – Goodwin has repeatedly advanced explicitly ethnonationalist conceptions of national identity.
In one particularly infamous interview last year, he opined that “Englishness is an ethnicity that is deeply rooted in a people that can trace their roots back over generations” and argued that British citizens with recent foreign heritage – among them former Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak, who was born in Hampshire – cannot reasonably call themselves "English" in a true sense.
However, Goodwin himself and Reform are increasingly under pressure from even more extreme figures on the right, notably expelled Reform MP Rupert Lowe, whose recently founded party Restore claims to have 100,000 members and has attracted the backing of Elon Musk.
Lowe, who has promised to "remove millions of foreigners who shouldn’t be in our country, and chainsaw back the size of the state, vastly empowering the individual", has lately attacked Reform UK for his supposed moderation on “mass deportation” and racial difference in general.
In response, Goodwin – who among other things has promised to “slash welfare for non-Brits” – has responded to Restore supporters’ mockery by accusing them of providing a haven for “white supremacists, antisemites, racists and conspiracy theorists”.
Labour on life support
Meanwhile, the result in Gorton and Denton deals a heavy blow to the Labour government, in particular Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whom some pollsters judge to be the most unpopular prime minister in the history of modern British politics depending on what measure is used.
Having fallen well behind Reform in the polls – sinking to as low as fourth place in some surveys – the Starmer government has lately been rocked by the release of the so-called Epstein Files, which revealed that its chosen ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, had not only continued a close friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein well after his first conviction but also passed him confidential information while serving as Business Secretary at the height of the 2009 global financial crisis.
The ensuing row forced the resignation of Starmer's chief of staff, and the prime minister was briefly expected to face an immediate leadership challenge. But the Gorton and Denton vote will be followed in May by simultaneous elections for the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Senedd and many English local governments, all of which are expected to be disastrous for the Labour Party.
With the exception of Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, whose attempt to stand in Gorton and Denton was blocked by the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee, no candidate has so far emerged to directly challenge Starmer before the government has those elections behind it.
Read Keir Starmer’s letter to Labour MPs in
full after Gorton and Denton by-election
defeat
The Greens may have won here, but they simply do not have the resources, the activist base or the local knowledge to replicate this victory across the country
Following the Labour Party’s defeat in the Gorton and Denton by-election, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has written to all of the party’s MPs expressing his disappointment at the result, setting out the reasons he thinks were behind the defeat, while at the same time vowing to carry on despite calls in some quarters for him to go.
The Labour Party finished third in the constituency, a seat it had controlled for over 100 years and where it won with an absolute majority at the 2024 general election.
A number of unions and MPs on the left of the party have called on the Prime Minister to reflect on his own position, however the Prime Minister has vowed to carry on.
Here is the Prime Ministers letter in full:
Dear Colleagues,
The result in Gorton and Denton is deeply disappointing.
Instead of a Labour MP who can be a local champion delivering for Gorton and Denton alongside a Labour Government and a Labour mayor, the people of Gorton and Denton now have a representative who is more interested in dividing people than uniting them. We have to learn lessons from that, and we will.
I know this is a tough result for our movement but I still want to thank you for everything you did to support our brilliant candidate Angeliki Stogia. She did a fantastic job and Gorton and Denton deserved to have her as their MP.
We’ve seen the true colours of Zack Polanski’s Greens in this campaign. The Greens were able to capitalise on an endorsement from George Galloway to win over enough voters to push them over the line. Their willingness to welcome Galloway’s divisive, sectarian politics is a sign that the Greens are not the harmless environmentalists they pretend to be, and their position on legalising all drugs shows how unstable this electoral coalition is. It cannot survive a general election campaign.
It hurts, but this is the kind of result that we have often seen parties of government face. In by-elections people can make their voice heard without risking a change of government. I get it: people are rightly impatient to see the change they voted for.
It’s my job to make sure that happens. And I’m working day in, day out to see it through.
Over the coming months, people will feel the benefit of the long-term decisions this government is taking. Look at the good economic news we’ve had in the past week: inflation and borrowing coming down, retail sales and business confidence rising, energy bills falling. And look at the policies that are going to make a difference in people’s lives in the coming months: the landmark Employment Rights Act, money off energy bills, the cruel two-child limit scrapped, more free breakfast clubs opening, Pride in Place funding coming through, NHS waiting lists continuing to fall. It will show what we’ve been saying from the outset of this year: the country is turning a corner. These are all Labour policies, putting Labour values into action – policies no other party would or could deliver.
The Greens may have won here, but they simply do not have the resources, the activist base or the local knowledge to replicate this victory across the country. We’ve seen that before. We’ve seen it with the Lib Dems, who have often won mid-term by-elections against both the Conservatives and Labour, but never been able to come close to winning nationally. We’ve seen it with George Galloway, who won two mid-term by elections but held neither of those seats in a general election.
We will continue to warn of the risk the Greens pose: the risk of extreme policies like legalising all drugs and pulling out of NATO that most voters strongly reject, and the risk of splitting the progressive vote so that Reform come through the middle.
The next election is too important to let that happen. It’s a fight we can win, and we’re going to win it.
Best,
Keir
Prominent voices on the Left have said that Labour needs to get back to 'being Labour'
Despite the polls and predictions pointing to a knife-edge contest, when it came to it, the Gorton and Denton by-election wasn’t close.
The Greens’ Hannah Spencer won with a majority of 4,402 votes, beating Reform.
The result is a historic defeat for Labour. Gorton and Denton was a safe Labour seat, in an area that the party had held continuously since 1935, through several boundary changes.
Here are some initial reactions from Labour figures and trade unions following the party’s defeat.
Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, said: “Our party has just come third in Gorton and Denton, a previously safe Labour seat – an area where we haven’t lost an election since 1931.”
Whittome said there were clear lessons to be learned and warned the party not to “ape Reform”.
She said: “In order to keep our voter coalition together we should be true to the progressive values that Labour is meant to stand for. The failure to do this meant large parts of our coalition fled to another progressive party.”
Whittome also criticised Labour for putting “factional interests ahead of anything else” by blocking Andy Burnham from standing as a candidate.
She also said: “The bizarre claims about the Greens in relation to drugs and sex workers were desperate, embarrassing, and harmful. It is no wonder they did not work and instead reflected badly on our party.”
Whittome said that the results “shows why first past the post isn’t fit for purpose. If the government doesn’t introduce proportional voting, a far right party could win the next general election outright on a minority of the vote.
“This possibility inevitably makes tactical voting essential in some seats, and Labour is playing with fire.”
Karl Turner, Labour MP for Kingston-upon-Hull, said the result was “a catastrophe”.
He told Times Radio: “The reality is we’ve ended up with a situation which we could have avoided, that’s just the truth. This was avoidable. But here we are, in Manchester, with the Greens. It’s the worst result the Labour Party could have ever had, frankly.
“So here we are with a situation where we can’t out-left wing the Greens, we tried to out-right wing Reform on immigration and other such matters.
“My message to Keir Starmer, the prime minister, is this: why don’t we try and be Labour?”
Andrea Egan, Unison’s general secretary said: “The Greens won because Labour under Starmer has abandoned progressive values, imitating the far-right instead of taking the fight to them.
“If the Government wants to survive it urgently needs to stand up for workers and defend the fundamental values of our movement.”
General secretary of Unite, Sharon Graham, said: “Labour need now to ditch the gimmicks and get back to being Labour – not New Labour claptrap, not one that plays games but real Labour.”
She said that “workers and families are hurting”, and told Labour to “Stop listening to your rich mates and start listening to everyday people”.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
‘Wake up and listen’.
Following the Labour Party’s defeat in the Gorton and Denton by-election, a number of trade unions have given their reaction, calling on the party to change course.
The Green Party won the by-election, with Labour coming third in the tightly contested race, 5,616 votes behind the Greens on 14,980 votes, while Reform UK finished second with 10,578 votes. The result represents a 25.3% drop in Labour’s vote compared to 2024.
Reacting to the party’s defeat, Unite, have called on the government to ‘wake up and listen’.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “If Labour needed any further wake up calls – this is clearly one. Labour need to now ditch the gimmicks and get back to being Labour – not new, not one that plays games, but real Labour.
“Workers and families are hurting. We have a cost of living crisis largely being ignored and investment in jobs for the here-and-now being blocked by a Treasury that doesn’t seem to understand the basics of what is needed to build Britain.
“Stop listening your rich mates and start listening to everyday people.”
UNISON called on the government to stand up for workers and defend ‘fundamental values’.
UNISON general secretary Andrea Egan said: “The Greens won for a simple reason. Many traditional Labour supporters, in Manchester and across the country, want to see progressive values robustly defended against the far-right, not gleefully abandoned.
“A Labour government should be standing up for workers, defending migrants and refugees, and taking the fight to Nigel Farage rather than letting him set the agenda.”
Egan went on to add: “If the government wants to survive, it urgently needs to stand up for workers and defend our fundamental values.”
The head of the Fire Brigades Union, Steve Wright, says “Labour’s entire strategy of framing politics as “it’s us v Reform” is in tatters.
He said: “The party’s traditional core vote is collapsing before our eyes. This result represents a halving of the vote compared to 2024. That should set alarm bells ringing across the labour movement.
“If the government does not change course immediately, it will face heavy losses in the May elections, and at that point, the political consequences for Keir Starmer will become unavoidable. The game will be up unless there is a decisive shift in direction.
“The Labour Party needs to listen to the people, not Parliament. It needs to listen to its members and affiliated unions, not corporate lobbyists.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
MPs, union leaders and organisations react to ‘bruising’ Gorton and Denton result
MPs, trade union leaders and Labour-linked organisations have expressed their disappointment and anger following the party’s dismal result at the Gorton and Denton by-election.
Labour were pushed to third in the constituency, as the Greens secured their first by-election win and first seat in the north of England, with Reform candidate Matthew Goodwin placing second.
Many Labour voices have called for a change in course following the result, with demands to shift to the left, while others have instead said the party needs to focus on addressing the issues that matter to the public, including the cost of living crisis and improving public services.
PM describes result as ‘very disappointing’
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has described the result as “very disappointing” but vowed to keep fighting for change.
He told broadcasters: “Incumbent governments quite often get results like that mid-term, but I do understand that voters are frustrated, they’re impatient for change.
“I came into politics late in life, as it happens, to fight for change for those people need it. The people who need an NHS that works for them, to be able to doctors appointment when they need it, to get the money they need in their pockets to pay their bills, and to have decent and better life.
“I will keep on fighting for those people as long as I’ve got breath in my body.”
First past the post ‘not fit for purpose’
However, Nottingham East MP Nadia Whittome pointed the blame for the by-election loss at the party’s leadership and said that Labour must not ape Reform, not put factional interests above all else and not play dirty.
She also called for a change in the voting system away from first past the post, describing it as “not fit for purpose”.
Whittome said: “If the government doesn’t introduce proportionate voting, a far-right party could win the next general election outright on a minority of the vote. This possibility inevitably makes tactical voting essential in some seats, and Labour is playing with fire.”
‘Stop treating progressive voters with contempt’
Richard Burgon also said the blame for the loss lay at Starmer’s door and accused him of putting “factional interests over having the candidate best placed to win, Andy Burnham”.
He said that the party’s leadership needed to “stop treating progressive voters with contempt” and called for a “return to real Labour values”.
Hull East MP Karl Turner said that the situation in Gorton and Denton could have been avoided and described the result as the “worst result the Labour Party could have ever had”.
Turner told the Huffington Post: “We are with a situation where we can’t out-left wing the Greens, we tried to out-right wing Reform on immigration and other such matters.
“My message to Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, is this: why don’t we try and be Labour?”
Rayner says result in neighbouring seat is ‘wake up call’
Former Deputy Prime Minister and rumoured leadership contender Angela Rayner said the result should be a “wake up call” for Labour and said: “It’s time to really listen – and to reflect”.
Rayner, MP for the neighbouring constituency of Ashton-under-Lyne, said: “Voters want the change that we promised – and they voted for.
“If we want to unrig the system, if we want to make the change we were sent into government to make, we have to be braver.
“A labour agenda that puts people first.
“That’s what all of us across our movement need to rededicate ourselves to.”
‘We don’t need a shift to the left’
However, North Durham MP Luke Akehurst said that the result in Gorton and Denton confirmed that “Labour’s broad but fragile 2024 coalition faces potent threats from both left and right”.
He said: “We need to avoid kneejerk responses that address the concerns of one wing of support we need at the expense of losing the other, and focus on the core agenda around tackling the cost of living crisis and improving public services which all the voters we need to win back would share.”
Similarly, MP for Rugby John Slinger said that Labour should “stay calm” – and noted that the Conservatives lost all but one of 21 by-elections between 2010 and 2015, but still went on to win the 2015 general election.
“We don’t need a ‘shift to the left’ – because this is a Labour government delivering on Labour values already. Outside the hyper intense focus and unique nature of a by-election, people want a stable government, whose ministers are resolutely focused on their interests and to not sell simplistic solutions, but just get on with the job of improving our country.
“We’re in government, and governments lose by-elections. We need to dust ourselves down and get on with the job of government.”
However, another 2024 intake MP, generally considered loyal to Starmer, described it bluntly as a “total f**king disaster.”
‘Galloway won seats mid-term, only to lose them again’
Labour has sought to compare the Green Party’s success in a historically Labour seat to that of George Galloway, and that the party would regain the seat at a general election.
A Labour source said: “The Greens can win a by-election, but they cannot win a general election.
“George Galloway, who backed the Greens in this by-election, won seats mid-term, only to lose them again – and he certainly never became Prime Minister.
“The Green Party’s policies, including legalising all drugs and withdrawing from NATO, are not a serious programme for government.”
Unite: ‘Stop listening to rich mates and listen to everyday people’
Union leaders have expressed their anger following the result, with Unite general secretary Sharon Graham to “ditch the gimmicks and get back to being Labour”.
She said: “Workers and families are hurting. We have a cost of living crisis largely being ignored and investment in jobs for the here-and-now being blocked by a Treasury that doesn’t seem to understand the basics of what is needed to build Britain.
“Stop listening to your rich mates and start listening to everyday people.”
‘Labour face heavy losses in May without change of course’
Fire Brigades Union general secretary Steve Wright said that Labour’s strategy of framing the contest as ‘us versus Reform’ “is in tatters” and that the party’s traditional core vote is “collapsing before our eyes”.
“If the government does not change course immediately, it will face heavy losses in the May elections, and at that point, the political consequences for Keir Starmer will become unavoidable. The game will be up unless there is a decisive shift in direction.
The Labour Party needs to listen to the people, not Parliament. It needs to listen to its members and affiliated unions, not corporate lobbyists. And it must end the now completely discredited factionalism that has come to define far too much of its internal culture and decision-making.”
‘Labour must rediscover radical soul’
General secretary of the TSSA Maryam Eslamdoust said that Labour’s lurch to the right under Starmer’s leadership had resulted in a “haemorrhaging” of votes to the Green Party.
She said that a change in leader would not be enough and said: “Labour must rediscover its radical soul and start to deliver for the British public by extending public ownership of key industries like water, energy, and mail, as well as substantially increasing the minimum wage for all workers.
“Only by embracing ‘Real Labour’ policies, that must also include a wealth tax to fund public services, will we be able to win back support from the voters who switched from our party to the Greens.”
‘Labour must confront twin populisms we face’
Fabian Society general secretary Joe Dromey also branded the by-election as dealing a “bruising result” to Labour and that a fragmentation of Labour’s coalition has lost one of the party’s safest seats.
“Labour must confront the twin populisms that we face. We need to stand up more strongly against the division peddled by Farage, and we must expose the simplistic solutions offered by Polanski.
“But Labour must also articulate a bold, hopeful and unifying vision of the future. One which shows our values in action, and which reunites our coalition.
So, let’s start with the good news – Reform UK does not have a new MP. Matt Goodwin suffered a bad loss.
At the start of this campaign it was very much felt that Reform could easily take this seat. Perhaps we’re now seeing that the ‘teal wave’, which had been seemingly unstoppable for so long, may have in fact crested.
However, that’s about all the electoral good news for Labour today (though we do have our usual round up of how Labour is delivering in government). Coming third in a seat that we’d previously held by over 13,000 votes is going to raise inevitable questions for Labour’s leadership and strategy. In particular, their relentless focus on Labour to Reform switchers – which has opened up space to Labour’s left which the Green Party capitalised on to devastating effect last night to win their fifth MP and first in the north of England.
Some realism will be needed when asking these questions.
First of all, midterm by-elections do tend to produce results that are unfavourable to the sitting government – especially one that is unpopular. Secondly, it will be reasonable to argue that there has not yet been time for the things Labour has done right to bear fruit.
None of which is to argue that last night’s result was inevitable.
The most obvious question this morning is would Labour have done better if Andy Burnham had been the candidate?
That is to take nothing away from Labour’s Angeliki Stogia who fought a very positive, very energetic campaign. But the Greater Manchester Mayor’s popularity, especially when contrasted with the UK Labour Government overall, is significant. Could running this popular figurehead have made Labour the more obvious ‘stop Reform’ choice? Obviously nobody can prove a counterfactual, but some reports from the doorstep show that people were saying that they would have voted for Burnham but could not vote for Labour more broadly.
Even this inevitably leads to even tougher questions. If Burnham had won, that would have created an expensive and difficult by-election for that Greater Manchester mayoralty. Is the calculation, therefore, that it was better to risk this mid-term by-election loss in order to prevent putting that mayoralty at risk of being run by populists of the left or the right?
That is the case that Keir Starmer will have to make. He made it known that he led from the front in blocking Andy Burnham’s candidacy. Therefore, he will need to make the argument that this was the right thing to do for the party overall in a long-term strategic approach even if it might have been the wrong tactic in Gorton and Denton.
Let’s be blunt – the circumstances of this by-election could not have been worse for Labour. Not only had the whole campaign started with a high profile internal row over Burnham’s candidacy but throughout the short campaign one news story has dominated – that of the relationship of Peter Mandelson with Jeffrey Epstein and Mandelson’s influence with senior figures in Keir Starmer’s government.
This row has already resulted in the loss of a number of staff from Number 10 including Starmer’s right hand man Morgan McSweeney. Many of these were also figures who were largely involved in trying to bring the Party to particularly focus on those Labour to Reform switchers at the expense of leaving our left flank exposed. With them leaving, that may already be changing, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t lessons still to be learned.
When I was speaking to our reporter James Tibbitts before the result came in last night, he said that one thing that had clearly struck him was the internal unity that had been displayed in Gorton and Denton. People working from across the factions of the party to get behind the candidate and to pull positively in the same direction.
Now, obviously, this result is not what any of those people wanted. But that energy, that working together rather than fighting each other may well be a key part of turning around Labour’s fortunes going forward.
If we simply make this a chance to attack the leadership and revive internal fights, we might lose something very precious and very fragile that Labour members started to rebuild on those doorsteps. However, if we also mistake the need for unity for a need for blind loyalty, we will fail to have the difficult conversations about where, how and why Labour is getting things wrong.
Both unquestioning loyalty and factional infighting are blind alleys. Instead, Labour must continue to work in the spirit of unity but to do so with honesty and transparency and encourage a discussion between all of the parts of the party; a discussion where all feel as valued and energised as they did on those doorsteps yesterday. All find a way to feel part of what is being built enabling them to pull in the same direction and to work to make this Labour government a success in policy, political, electoral and cultural terms.
There’s still time to do that but the clock is ticking. LabourList will continue to provide a platform for all those wishing to discuss all things Labour in that spirit of honesty, togetherness and transparency.
For today, we want to thank the thousands of activists who hit the doorsteps in Gorton and Denton. We want to thank Angeliki Stogia for running an incredible and positive campaign and we want to thank you, our readers, for ensuring that LabourList is the space that Labour needs to ensure that we can be a robust, forward-looking, positive and energised party.
We saw defeat last night and it hurts. But underneath that we may also have seen positive signs of things to come. Let’s build on that.
Left Foot Forward
He also congratulated Hannah Spencer on her victory
The former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has pledged that his new political outfit – Your Party – will ‘work constructively with the Greens’ following the Gorton and Denton by-election.
Corbyn also congratulated the Green Party candidate – now MP – Hannah Spencer for her victory in the by-election. Corbyn endorsed the Green Party in the by-election.
Speaking following the by-election, Corbyn said: “Congratulations to Hannah Spencer on a stunning victory.
“Proud to support a campaign built on hope and humanity.
“Under our new leadership team, Your Party will work constructively with the Greens, because there is only one way we can bring about real change: together.”
Corbyn’s comments also follow the elections to the Your Party Central Executive Committee (CEC) – the collective leadership body that will be running the party. In those elections, the slate backed by Corbyn – The Many – won 14 of the 24 seats on the CEC.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Matt Goodwin slammed for claiming Reform lost by-election due to ‘Muslim sectarianism’ and alleged family voting
'You got whipped. But instead of being gracious, you make up an arrant, racist libellous story'
Matt Goodwin, GB News presenter and Reform’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election was rejected at the polls yesterday.
Goodwin ran his campaign saying that only he would prioritise the people of Gorton and Denton, and not Muslim voters.
At the polls, Goodwin’s message was rejected. The Greens’ Hannah Spencer won 14,980 votes, and Goodwin came second, with over 4,400 fewer votes.
After losing, Goodwin issued an inflammatory losing statement claiming that Reform had lost due to Muslim sectarianism.
Goodwin wrote on X: “We are losing our country. A dangerous Muslim sectarianism has emerged. We have only one general election left to save Britain. Vote Reform every chance you get. I will continue the fight. I will always fight for you. I will stand at the next general election. Matt.”
Both Goodwin and Nigel Farage have also been saying that there had been evidence of “family voting” in polling booths yesterday. Family voting is where two voters use one polling booth at the same time, and can involve husbands telling their wives how to vote.
Democracy Volunteers raised the issue after the polls closed, and appears to have not reported the allegations to the police.
A spokesperson for the local council’s acting returning officer said that if the observers had been “so concerned about alleged issues they could and should have raised them with us during polling hours so that immediate action could be taken”.
The statement added: “It is extremely disappointing that Democracy Volunteers have waited until after polls have closed to make such claims.”
Democracy Volunteers did not mention race or ethnicity, but Farage said it raised concerns about “democratic process in predominantly Muslim areas”.
Reacting to Goodwin’s statement, one X user, Mike Galsworthy, said: “You got whipped.
“But instead of being gracious, you make up an arrant, racist libellous story …which there is no police validation of…
– and which you think accounts for over 4,000 votes?? Really? This is Trump tactics on your part – it’s undermining democracy in a sulk.”
Investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr wrote on X: “This is racism, pure and simple. It’s also a test. The UK press needs to describe it for exactly what it is: that Reform’s candidate made a racist and inflammatory losing statement.”
Salma Yaqoob wrote: “Almost feel sorry for the haters who are trying to spin Muslims voting for a woman in a party led by a gay Jewish man is evidence of Islamist sectarianism.
“In fact it’s evidence of genuine tolerance, rejection of superficial identity politics and ability to prioritise tackling common concerns of cost of living, protecting public services and rejecting war mongering. And the promotion of mutual respect and individual freedoms.
“The coming together of people is terrifying for the ruling elites.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
Nurses from New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center strike outside the hospital on January 12, 2026, in New York City.Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images
