Greens win Gorton and Denton by-election in humiliating defeat for Keir Starmer
Sir Keir Starmer has said that Labour’s defeat in the Gorton and Denton by-election is “very disappointing” and promised to “keep fighting”.
The Greens won the by-election with more than 40 per cent of the vote, in a humiliating defeat for the Prime Minister.
Hannah Spencer has been elected the new MP for the Greater Manchester constituency, overshooting expectations with a more than 10 per cent margin.
In her victory speech, the Green party’s fifth MP said that “a nice life” was no longer in reach for her constituents, who she said are “working to line the pockets of billionaires”.
Labour was squeezed from the left and right, falling into third place behind Zack Polanski’s left wing party and Reform UK.
Green leader Zack Polanski said that this level of swing towards the insurgent left party promises a “tidal wave of new Green MPs”.
Runners up Reform, in second place on 29 per cent of the vote, were quick to question the integrity of the election, with Nigel Farage commenting in a post on X: “This election was a victory for sectarian voting and cheating.”
Farage added that the local elections in May will be “goodbye Starmer and goodbye to the Tory party”.
Labour MPs furious
The mood among Labour MPs is sulphurous on Friday morning. Richard Burgon, a left wing Starmer critic, blamed the PM’s “clique” for the Labour defeat, adding: “They put factional interests over having the candidate best placed to win, Andy Burnham.”
Rachel Maskell, another Labour MP on the left of the parliamentary party, told Times Radio that the by-election result represents a “final warning” for the Prime Minister, whose leadership she says is “is out of touch with its party, out of touch with the country”.
Meanwhile, Kingston upon Hull MP Karl Turner said that Labour ceding ground in its Manchester heartlands to the Greens is a catastrophe for the party.
“It’s the worst result the Labour Party could have ever had, frankly… We are in a position where we can’t out-left-wing the Greens, we tried to out-right-wing Reform on immigration, other such matters.
“My message to Keir, the Prime Minister, is this. Why don’t we try to be Labour?”
Pollster Luke Tryl, who runs the think tank More In Common, told the Telegraph following the result that on current projections the Prime Minister himself would lose his seat.