Sir Keir Starmer is under renewed pressure after a stunning victory by the Green Party in the Gorton and Denton by-election, with Labour trailing in third place behind Reform UK in second.
The leftwing Greens comfortably won the key parliamentary by-election in south-east Manchester, in a previously safe Labour seat, with 41 per cent of the vote.
Labour’s defeat will weaken the prime minister further, following a bruising start to the year and speculation over his leadership, with many of Starmer’s MPs now looking over their shoulders at a potential Green challenge.
The Green candidate, Hannah Spencer, took the seat with 14,980 votes after a bitter and unpredictable three-way fight.
It was the Greens’ first ever by-election win and a vindication of the strategy of Zack Polanski, the party’s leader since last September, of targeting urban votes with an anti-poverty message combined with strong criticism of Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
Reform had 10,578 votes and Labour took 9,364. At the 2024 general election Labour won the seat with a 13,413 majority.
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The result suggests that the Greens are able to outcompete Starmer as the primary leftwing opposition to Reform in Labour heartlands.
Most Labour MPs do not believe Starmer will face a renewed leadership threat immediately, but a much bigger round of elections on May 7, to the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and English local councils, now looks ominous.
Spencer in her victory speech said: “Instead of working for a nice life, we’re working to line the pockets of billionaires . . . We are being bled dry.”
Reform’s candidate, Matthew Goodwin, claimed the result represented “the emergence of a dangerous sectarianism in British politics”.
“What you saw was a coalition of Islamists and woke progressives that came together to dominate the constituency.”
Anna Turley, Labour chair, called the result “clearly disappointing”.
She said: “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.”
But the Conservatives, who finished fourth with only 706 votes, said Starmer had “killed the Labour party”.
