The Greens are today celebrating their first ever victory in a UK by-election as the party stunned Labour and Reform to take the Gorton and Denton seat in Greater Manchester.
Hannah Spencer won the vote after securing 14,980 ballots, more than 4,000 ahead of her nearest challenger Reform’s Matt Goodwin.
Ms Spencer’s victory piles fresh misery onto Keir Starmer who insisted only Labour could defeat Nigel Farage’s Reform in the run-up to yesterday’s by-election.
The Greens’ victory at Gorton and Denton represents the sixth largest Labour majority to be overturned at a by-election since the Second World War.
Reacting to his party’s defeat, Nigel Farage claimed there had been ‘cheating’ after official observers raised the alarm about ‘family voting’ – a major breach of electoral law.
Family voting is where a voter is accompanied by another person into or near polling booths with the intention of influencing their vote.
The Reform UK leader posted on X: ‘This election was a victory for sectarian voting and cheating. Matt Goodwin was a great candidate for us. Roll on the elections on May 7th. It will be goodbye Starmer and goodbye to the Tory party.’
Follow all the latest political reaction from the Gordon and Denton by-election
Hannah Spencer admits she will have to cancel plumbing jobs in victory speech
Now to my customers, I’m sorry, but I think I might have to cancel the work that you had booked in, because I’m heading to Parliament. And when I get there, I will make space for everyone doing jobs like mine. We will finally get a seat at the table.
We have shown that we don’t have to accept being turned against each other. We can demand better without hating each other. We can do that together.
We ran a hopeful campaign, backed by thousands of volunteers and activists. We defeated the parties of billionaire donors. We have shown that we don’t have to accept being turned against each other at all.
Full result in the Gorton and Denton by-election.
Greens pull off historic victory in Gorton and Denton by-election
