United Kingdom

Greens win in Manchester by-elections, for Starmer a resounding defeat

Labour lost the by-election in Gorton and Denton, a constituency near Manchester that has been a solid Labour stronghold for a century

by Nicol Degli Innocenti

27 February 2026

La candidata vincitrice del Partito dei Verdi, Hannah Spencer, tiene un discorso dopo lo spoglio delle schede elettorali per le elezioni suppletive di Gorton e Denton a Manchester, in Gran Bretagna, il 27 febbraio 2026. Il 26 febbraio gli elettori si sono recati alle urne per eleggere un nuovo membro del Parlamento per la circoscrizione di Gorton e Denton, in un'elezione suppletiva indetta a seguito delle dimissioni del deputato in carica Andrew Gwynne. EPA/ADAM VAUGHAN

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

A stinging defeat for the ruling party and a humiliation for Premier Keir Starmer: Labour lost the by-election in Gorton and Denton, a constituency near Manchester that has been a solid Labour stronghold for a century. Not only that: the Labour party came third.

Triumphing was the Green candidate, Hannah Spencer, a young city councillor making her debut on the national political scene, who obtained 40.7 per cent of the vote, while Reform, the anti-immigration party founded and led by Nigel Farage, came second.

The result shows how much the popularity of the Labour Party, which only 18 months ago in the general election had won an overwhelming majority in Parliament, has plummeted. It also shows how much British politics has changed: the Conservative Party, the traditional opposition, had less than 2% of the vote.

Spencer, a young woman from the area who works as a plumber and campaigned as 'Hannah the plumber', said she won because she represented 'working people' and a politics of hope that 'wants to unite instead of divide'.

For the Greens, who have gained support nationwide since the young and charismatic Zack Polanski was elected leader, this is the first victory in a by-election.

For Starmer this is a double defeat, on a political and personal level, which once again casts doubt on his judgement. The premier in fact marginalised the left and moved the party to the centre in order to win the 2024 elections and has since then focused heavily on combating illegal immigration in an attempt to counter the rise of Reform.

Starmer's mistakes

Gorton and Denton's result shows that, in chasing votes on the right, the Labour Party lost a lot of support on the left to the Greens, who criticised the government both on the economy, for not having done enough to improve people's living standards after years of crisis, and on foreign policy and Gaza in particular. Polanski, who is Jewish and cannot be accused of anti-Semitism, has been the biggest critic of Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank and this has certainly favoured the Greens in an area with many Muslims.

Now that the Labour party has lost the most solid of its historic strongholds in a traditionally 'red' area, Starmer will also be criticised for the poor choice of candidate he made. In fact, the very popular Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, had asked to be the Labour candidate for Gorton and Denton in January, when MP Andrew Gwynne had resigned for health reasons.

According to all opinion polls Burnham would have won by a landslide. The party did not allow him to stand, arguing that he should continue his 'good work' as Mayor of Manchester. Behind the 'no' vote would have been Starmer, who was afraid that Burnham, once elected as an MP, would become his rival and run as party leader in his place, exploiting his popularity especially in the left wing of the party.

Many Labour MPs now accuse Starmer of putting his political survival above the good of the party. The premier's position had already been called into question by the scandal surrounding the choice of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington without taking into account his links to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, for which the former Labour Party veteran was arrested last week. Now Starmer's position has become even more precarious.