The Labour Party is facing a fresh leadership crisis after the Greens secured a historic byelection victory in Gorton and Denton, overturning a 13,000 majority. Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and Green councillor, became the party's fifth MP, defeating Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia, with Reform UK's Matt Goodwin coming second.
The scale of the defeat, in a seat held by Labour for nearly a century, has plunged the party into despair. Even loyal ministers described the result as 'cataclysmically bad', with calls for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to shift leftwards immediately. Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister, called the result 'a wake-up call'.
Starmer, however, appeared to ignore the pressure, attacking the Greens as an 'extreme' leftwing equivalent to Reform UK. But without a significant turnaround, he could face a leadership challenge after May's elections, with Labour expected to fare poorly in Scotland, Wales and English councils.
One MP on the soft left said the result had 'hastened everything', adding that nothing could save Starmer. The prime minister's blocking of Andy Burnham from standing in the byelection has heightened tensions, though Burnham has not ruled out a return to parliament.
Celebrating the Greens' first byelection win, Spencer said she offered voters an alternative to 'working to line the pockets of billionaires'. The victory signals the Greens' potential to challenge Reform UK as a protest vote, though some critics accused the party of sectarian politics.
