POLITICIANS across Westminster responded on Friday to the Green Party’s capture of the Gorton and Denton parliamentary seat.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski described the victory as evidence that voters were no longer willing to accept Labour’s politics of managed decline.
Speaking in Manchester, he said: ‘Labour’s electoral stranglehold is over. There are no longer any no-go areas for the Green Party,’ adding that voters had rejected fear-based campaigning in favour of ‘affordability, bold economics and compassion’.
Writing in the Independent, Polanski argued that Labour’s dominance had relied on persuading voters to settle for the ‘least worst option’, a calculation he said had collapsed under the pressure of rising bills and political disillusionment.
‘People won’t be taken for fools, or taken for granted, any longer,’ he wrote, pointing to the great enthusiasm for Hannah Spencer’s grassroots campaign.
Spencer, a plumber and newly qualified plasterer who became the first Green MP elected in the North of England told supporters in her victory speech: ‘Working hard used to get you something. Now people are working just to line the pockets of billionaires. We are being bled dry.’
She added that attempts to divide communities along racial or religious lines had failed in a constituency where residents ‘stick up for each other, whatever our background. I won’t accept politicians constantly scapegoating communities for society’s problems’.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, facing calls to resign for Labour’s defeat, acknowledged the defeat was ‘very disappointing’ but sought to frame it as routine mid-term turbulence, insisting Labour remained the only party capable of uniting the country while warning against political ‘extremes’.
The response drew criticism from within Westminster, with commentators noting the scale of the loss, one of the largest Labour majorities ever overturned at a by-election, and the absence of any indication that the government intended to change course.
Jeremy Corbyn said: ‘Congratulations to Hannah Spencer on a stunning victory. Proud to support a campaign built on hope and humanity.
‘Under our new leadership team, Your Party will work constructively with the Greens, because there is only one way we can bring about real change: together.’
Responding to the result, Labour MP for Hayes & Harlington, John McDonnell posted on X: ‘To all those Labour Party members and supporters who will feel so disappointed this morning I just say first the nightmare of Reform was blocked & second it was Labour Together that lost this election not the Labour Party that I know & have supported all my adult life.’
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