Green party wins Gorton and Denton byelection in blow to Keir Starmer | Byelections

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/green-party-wins-gorton-and-denton-byelection-in-blow-to-keir-starmer

Posted by J-Sou-Flay

40 Comments

  1. Results as I heard the announcement. Updated [here](https://www.manchester.gov.uk/directory_record/538292/parliamentary_gorton_and_denton_by-election_-_26_february_2026)

    Surname|Other name(s)|Party|Votes|Percent|Change
    —|—|—|–:|–:|–:
    SPENCER|Hannah|The Green Party|14,980|40.59%|27.44%
    GOODWIN|Matt|Reform UK|10,578|28.66%|14.60%
    STOGIA|Angeliki|The Labour Party|9,364|25.37%|-25.38%
    CADDEN|Charlotte Anne|The Conservative Party Candidate|706|1.91%|-5.99%
    PEARCEY|Jackie|Liberal Democrats|653|1.77%|-2.06%
    A-LOT|Sir Oink|The Official Monster Raving Looney Party|159|0.43%|0.43%
    BUCKLEY MBE |Nick|Advance UK|154|0.42%|0.42%
    O’MEACHAIR|Joseph|The Rejoin EU Party|98|0.27%|0.27%
    CLARKE|Dan|Libertarian Party UK|47|0.13%|0.13%
    MOORE|Sebastian|Social Democratic Party|46|0.12%|0.12%
    WILS|Hugo|Communist League|29|0.08%|0.08%

  2. over 40% of the vote – significantly outperforming polling. huge win for the party and a complete failure of strategy from labour

  3. Jaded_Strain_3753 on

    Disaster for Labour, Reform underperformed as well. Much easier win than expected for Greens in the end.

  4. Anxious-Cockroach on

    What an awesome news to wake up to. People show up if it means reform won’t get in, and that’s a powerful signal of the years to come.

  5. Obviously it’s interesting that Labour came third.
    But they’re really not that far from Reform who really underperformed.

    I think the Greens did much better than even optimistic polls expected with 41%.

  6. NamesEuropeanBob on

    Interesting times indeed.

    Could this be a false dawn for the greens? They are certainly gaining a lot of traction but not sure how it will translate to a GE.

    Labour in tatters, some of their campaigning has been shocking. Wonder if this will give them a kick up the arse, probably not, which is ironic as their record in government is not totally terrible. Very bad for Starmer.

    Tories less than 2% lol. Fuck reform.

  7. I think I’m right in saying that this seat wasn’t even in the top 100 of the Green Party’s target seats. This is the first Northern seat they’ve won too. I think it’s safe to say that Labour’s strategy of focus on winning Reform voters and ignoring their base has completely failed, as many have been pointing out for quite some time.

  8. Anyone think Labour will finally get the message, or will they double down on going after the Conformative voters?

  9. TheLimeyLemmon on

    It wasn’t even close. No wonder the election fraud narrative was getting pushed late yesterday afternoon; Reform knew they weren’t winning.

  10. Fickle-Fox-9071 on

    Fits with the narrative that I have been hearing (and seeing with my own eyes) in blue belt areas of kent, surrey and essex where conservative members are openly talking about tactically voting to stop reform (or restore I guess)

    Im friendly with my local conservative association and they are very much middle of the road centrists and scared by reform/nigel farage.

    I bet on a Green win based on that. Happy days.

  11. onthecarstereo on

    I was grumpy about having pregnancy insomnia and being awake at 4am, but seeing this amazing result come in definitely makes up for it!!

  12. I was super unhappy to wake up really early this morning. I went downstairs and put the kettle on and then switched on the tv. Saw it happening live. I’m so so happy! Gorton is just down the road from me so it’s a local thing. Loved seeing that reform boy in the background during her speech

  13. apewithfacepaint on

    Glad Reform didnt win, they’re already spinning a “stolen election!!” yarn on Twitter, but fucking hell the Green party policy platform AND this campaign specifically have filled me with nothing but dread.

  14. PossibleSmoke8683 on

    Fantastic news . Some of the more sloppy right wing UK subs reporting election fraud. Utter nonsense . Well done to the Green Party .

  15. Vivid_Employment8635 on

    13,000 majority to third and 15 points behind. This is horrific. Starmer has got to go and Labour has to start delivering for people in ways they can actually feel.

  16. There was a worry that Labour and Green would split the vote between them and allow a Reform win, but in the end even a perfect 50/50 split wouldn’t have been enough for Reform.

    Happy about the Green win. I wonder if Labour will take their alienation of the left wing of the party more seriously now.

  17. Great outcome very happy. Tories and Labour both need to be utterly smashed at the next election. 

  18. whataboutbenson on

    Are the conservatives facing de facto extinction now? I believe until the last election they were the most successful political party in European history. What a sea change.

  19. Dense_Information813 on

    Nigel Farage already going full Trump and claiming “cheating” without any real evidence. He’s also (quite incredibly) accusing the Greens of “sectarianism” for daring to appeal to the Muslim base. The irony just kind of writes itself.

  20. The idea of needing to tactically vote for Labour to keep Reform out is well and truly out the window.

    Who knows what happens now with splitting votes in a landscape where there’s so many parties that are viable voting options, but what we do know is that Labour has no demographic base that they can just take for granted.

  21. Hannah’s acceptance speech was fantastic. “You work hard and you should be able to enjoy a nice life with holidays and yet too many hard working families are struggling”. I’m glad the Greens have shown that running an authentic local candidate with a positive campaign can win.

    Great to see Reform comprehensively beaten. Unsurprising that it wasn’t close, considering Reform ran a non-local, upper class candidate from St Albans in a diverse and largely working class Manchester constituency.

  22. karpet_muncher on

    Absolutely fantastic.

    It’s time starmer realised the move should be to the left not to the right.

    This is the bloody nose starmer deserves.

    Yes the issues the reform supporters have are legit but the issues the left have been completely ignored.

    709 votes for the tories is insane.

  23. Cheap-Rate-8996 on

    The Tories lost their deposit! LMAO.

    So did the Lib Dems, but that’s to be expected…

  24. give people something to vote for, not just something to vote against. centrists always make this mistake

  25. This is a big loss for the labour government, losing such a historic safe area is a big blow to confidence in this government

  26. karpet_muncher on

    Slime bag zahawi claiming it was sectarian voting that cost them

    Absolutely scumbag claims. They’re just using this result to drum up more division, hatred and fear

  27. Past_Humor8321 on

    No to Reform. Yes to the NHS. Yes to diversity. Yes to freedom of speech. Yes to climate and animal rights. No to ICE. No to billionaires. No to tariffs.

  28. Most people feel poor and are struggling. We got promised if we go to uni and get a job we can be middle class. Turns out we can’t

    Green new MPs entire speech was about affordable living in her acceptance speech. Even noticed she talked about “people looking down on us”.

    A society that is ultra individualistic only works if people can be part of the consumer owner economy. They could when Blair was around but can’t now, so the neoliberal policies won’t be popular now.

    Telling poor people (ie the majority of the under 40s), that being poor is not a moral failing and a low wage doesn’t mean your a parasite that deserves poverty is a very winning message

  29. I really think this was decided by Starmer trying to avoid a leadership contest.

    Burnham would’ve edged out reform. Now it gives doubt to some labour voters about the best way to oppose Reform. Very bad news for Labour.

  30. The_Grizzly_Bear on

    The big what-if is what the result would be if Andy Burnham was allowed to be the Labour candidate?

  31. It by-election so should mean nothing long term but based off of their dire polling they should have still kept the seat.

    Starmer should go by end of week.

    Councillors for Labour will be wiped out if he stays on.