In what was once a stronghold of the Labor Party, the progressive Green Party gained attention in the election, but the right-wing Reform Party came in second place.
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Candidates from Britain’s left-wing Green Party comfortably won a high-profile election for a vacant seat, suffering an embarrassing defeat to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party in one of its former strongholds.
Results released on Friday showed Green Party MP Hannah Spencer, 34, a plumber, won 40.7% of the vote in the by-election for Gorton and Denton, a constituency in Greater Manchester that had been considered a sure bet for Labor for almost a century.
A populist, anti-immigrant, far-right candidate finished in second place, with analysts pointing to cracks in Britain’s traditional two-party politics.
Labor, which won a majority of votes in Gorton and Denton in the last general election in 2024, ended in a disastrous third place.
The Green Party has positioned itself as an alternative to Labor, saying it has moved away from some of the values the ruling party once championed.
The Green Party and its leader, Zach Polanski, have been vocal in condemning Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and support for the Palestinians. Many Labor voters are furious at the government’s continued diplomatic support for Israel through the carnage it has wrought in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Political scientist John Curtis called the result a “seismic moment” that meant “the future of British politics is more uncertain than at any point since the Second World War,” Reuters reported.
Labor Party chairwoman Anna Turley said the results were “clearly disappointing”.
In his victory speech, Spencer said he felt compelled to criticize “politicians and divisive figures who always scapegoat and blame the community for every problem in society.”
Starmer’s troubles continue
Pressure is mounting on the beleaguered Mr Starmer after he lost what was thought to be a safe seat in the country’s biggest electoral test in almost a year.
The British leader faces calls to resign amid Labour’s soaring popularity and ongoing turmoil, including the arrest of Peter Mandelson, whom Starmer appointed last year as ambassador to the United States, following revelations over his links to disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr Starmer, widely touted as a potential challenger to the Labor leadership, had personally invested political funds in the election outcome, including by blocking the candidacy of Andy Burnham, the popular mayor of Manchester, and by visiting constituencies before voting.
Challenge Duopoli
Mr Spencer’s victory – the Green Party’s first victory in a by-election – gives the Greens five seats in parliament, while the poll-leading Reform faction, widely seen as posing the government’s biggest challenge at the polls, gains eight seats.
Both parties, along with the centrist Liberal Democrats, enjoy double-digit support in opinion polls, posing a threat to the traditional Labor-Tory duopoly of British politics.
Anti-immigration reform leader Nigel Farage has hailed the upcoming local elections in May, claiming without evidence in X that the Green Party’s victory was a “victory for sectarian voting and fraud”.
“It’s goodbye to Starmer, it’s goodbye to the Tories,” he said.
A Green Party spokesperson dismissed Mr Farage’s comments as an “attempt to undermine democratic outcomes” and “straight out of President Trump’s playbook”.
The contest began after former Labor MP Andrew Gwynne resigned for health reasons.
