Sir Keir Starmer is under fresh pressure after the Green Party’s landslide victory in the Gorton and Denton by-election, with Labor in third behind Reform UK in second.
The left-wing Greens easily won a key parliamentary by-election in south-east Manchester, a previously safe Labor seat, with 41 percent of the vote.
Labor’s defeat would further weaken the prime minister, with many of Starmer’s MPs now eyeing a potential Green challenge after a disappointing start to the year and speculation over his leadership.
The Green candidate, Hannah Spencer, won the seat with 14,980 votes after a bitter and unexpected three-way battle.
It was the Greens’ first by-election victory and a confirmation of party leader Zach Polanski’s strategy since last September, targeting urban votes with an anti-poverty message coupled with strong criticism of Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
Reform received 10,578 votes and Labor received 9,364 votes. Labor won the seat in the 2024 general election with a majority of 13,413.
The result shows that the Greens are able to defeat Starmer as the primary left opposition to reform in the Labor heartlands.
Most Labor MPs do not believe Starmer faces any immediate threat of a fresh leadership bid, but a major round of elections for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and English local councils on May 7 now looks ominous.
Spencer said in his victory speech: “Instead of working for a good life, we’re working to line the pockets of billionaires… We’re bleeding out.”
Reform candidate Matthew Goodwin claimed that the result represented “the emergence of a dangerous sectarianism in British politics”.
“What you saw was a coalition of Islamists and woke progressives who came together to dominate the constituency.”
Labor chair Anna Turley called the result “clearly disappointing”.
“We have had thousands of conversations over the past few weeks and we know that the majority of voters here did not want the toxic politics of Nigel Farage and Reform,” he said.
But the Conservatives, who finished fourth with only 706 votes, said Starmer had “killed the Labor Party”.
