Greens win thumping victory in by-election as Labour comes in third

The Green Party has won the Gorton and Denton by-election in a major humiliation for Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, which came in third behind Reform UK.

Green candidate Hannah Spencer won 14,980 votes, 40.7 percent of the total. Reform candidate Matt Goodwin came in second place with 10,578 votes (28.7 percent), and Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia received 9,364 votes (25.4 percent).

The Conservatives, the former party of government until July 2024, won only 1.9 percent of the vote.

Spencer, a plumber and plasterer by profession, said in her victory speech on Friday morning that she will “work hard” for everyone in Gorton and Denton.

"Our struggles might not be the same... but we stick up for each other," she said.

"Life has changed. Instead of working for a nice life... we're working to line the pockets of billionaires. We are being bled dry.

"I think everybody should get a nice life. Clearly, I'm not the only person who thinks that."

Spencer slammed politicians who she said “scapegoat” others.

This follows a ferocious by-election which saw the Greens face off against Reform and Labour.

More than forty percent of people in Gorton and Denton are ethnic minority and one in four are Muslim.

During the campaign, the Greens accused Matt Goodwin of making racist statements. Goodwin has a track record of making controversial statements about ethnicities and Muslims.

Labour accused the Greens of “manipulating Muslim voters” on Wednesday, which Green candidate Spencer told MEE was the governing party engaging in “racist dogwhistles”.

Labour candidate Stogia refused to speak to the media at the vote count on Friday morning. 

The result is likely to create a crisis for Prime Minister Starmer.

The Labour leadership had blocked the popular mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, seen as a potential contender to replace Starmer as prime minister, from standing in the seat.

Meanwhile, Reform candidate Matthew Goodwin took the loss badly, claiming, “We are losing our country. A dangerous Muslim sectarianism has emerged. We have only one general election left to save Britain.”

Reform leader Nigel Farage claimed: “This election was a victory for sectarian voting and cheating.”

Labour has called on authorities to look into claims of high levels of “family voting” after election observer group Democracy Volunteers claimed to have witnessed the illegal practice, where two voters confer, collude or direct each other on who they will vote for.

But the by-election’s acting returning officer said polling station staff were trained to look for undue influence on voters, and insisted "no such issues" had been reported during polling hours.

A Labour insider told Middle East Eye the party “didn’t shortlist a single local Muslim candidate.

“Then they noticed Muslims abandoned Labour in droves and called it sectarianism and family voting.

“Typical dog-whistle, we’re used to it by now.”

The Muslim Vote campaign group said: “Blaming ‘family voting’ is irresponsible and insulting. For decades, so-called bloc votes were welcomed when they benefited Labour.”

The group added: “The real story tonight is that young Muslims and wider voters are breaking from transactional politics and embracing democratic accountability - registering, organising and participating fully in public life.”

Meanwhile, Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesperson, appears to have deleted a post yesterday in which he celebrated a post saying: “Just took 93yr mum to vote, she’s registered blind. In a very loud voice, she said, 'Which box for Reform?' A cheer went up from waiting voters”.

“Love this!” Yusuf replied.

The original post appears to have been a joke.