Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer, right, celebrates with party leader Zack Polanski in Manchester on Friday.Jon Super/The Associated Press
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing renewed questions about his political future after the Labour Party finished third in a by-election on Thursday in what had been one of the party’s safest seats.
Labour had held the Manchester-area riding of Gorton and Denton for nearly 100 years, and its candidate took more than 50 per cent of the vote in the 2024 general election.
On Thursday, Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer, a 34-year-old plumber, scored an upset victory and captured 41 per cent of the vote. Reform UK finished second, roughly 4,000 votes behind Ms. Spencer, followed by the Labour candidate, who took 25 per cent of the vote.
The win marked the first time the Greens had ever won a by-election, and it boosted the party’s ranks in the House of Commons to five MPs.
The left-wing Green Party beat the U.K.'s ruling Labour Party on Friday at a one-off special election in an area of Manchester it had dominated for almost a century.
Reuters
Ms. Spencer focused her campaign on affordability and the rising cost of living. “I work hard, that is what we do,” she told a crowd of cheering supporters early Friday morning after the results were confirmed. “People in their thousands told me on the doorsteps, and at the ballot box, that what we are sick of is being let down and looked down on, and we are sick of our hard work making other people rich.”
Green Party Leader Zack Polanski said the result showed that voters were “crying out for change, crying out for an alternative.”
The result could not have been worse for Mr. Starmer, who was already facing questions about his leadership and growing unease among backbench MPs over Labour’s poor showing in most opinion polls.
Party insiders are also bracing for what is expected to be a wipe out in local elections in May, where control of the Scottish and Welsh legislatures is also up for grabs. Labour has been in power in Wales for more than a century and not that long ago the party seemed on track to form a government in Scotland. Polls now show that Labour could lose power in Wales and finish far behind in Scotland.
Hannah Spencer of the left-wing Green Party won the contest for the vacant parliamentary seat of Gorton and Denton, with Nigel Farage's anti-immigration Reform party coming second.
Reuters
Labour’s main threat nationally had been coming largely from the right-wing Reform UK, led by populist firebrand Nigel Farage, which has been leading most polls. However, Ms. Spencer’s win means Labour now has a populist threat on the left as well.
Thursday’s result marked “the first time that neither Labour nor the Conservatives have been one of the top two parties in a by-election contest,” said John Curtice, a polling expert and politics professor at the University of Strathclyde.
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“With the two parties both running at 20 per cent or less in the polls, the Conservative-Labour duopoly that has long dominated postwar British politics has never looked weaker,” he told the BBC.
Mr. Starmer called the result very disappointing and he acknowledged that voters were frustrated with his government. “They’re impatient for change,” he said Friday. When asked if he considered resigning, Mr. Starmer said he would continue to “fight for change for those people who need it.”
“I will also fight against the extremes in politics on the right and the left, parties who want to tear our country apart,” he added.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham on Feb. 12.Phil Noble/Reuters
The Prime Minister has come under fire for preventing Manchester’s popular Labour mayor, Andy Burnham, from running as a candidate in the by-election.
Mr. Burnham is seen as a possible leadership contender and there had been suggestions that if elected as an MP, he could have become a rival to Mr. Starmer. He sought permission to run in the by-election, but was blocked by Labour’s National Executive Committee, which includes Mr. Starmer.
On Friday, Mr. Starmer dismissed suggestions that Mr. Burnham would have held the seat for Labour. “We had an excellent candidate in this by-election, and I thank the candidate and every single person who went campaigning for their positivity,” he told reporters.
Thursday’s poor showing prompted a couple of Labour MPs to call for Mr. Starmer to resign.
“The blame lies with Starmer & the people that surround him. Blocking Burnham was wrong & he did it for his own benefit,” Labour MP Brian Leishman wrote on X. He added: “Time he did the right thing for the country & the Labour Party, and go.”
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Several Labour MPs have expressed frustration at Mr. Starmer’s leadership and they have urged him to push a more progressive agenda, which would include a tax on wealthy individuals and increased spending on public services.
Former deputy leader Angela Rayner, who is considered a leading candidate to replace Mr. Starmer, said the party needed to be “braver.”
“This result must be a wakeup call. It’s time to really listen – and to reflect,” she wrote on X. If we want to unrig the system, if we want to make the change we were sent into Government to make, we have to be braver. A labour agenda that puts people first.”