By Aysu Bicer
LONDON (AA) – The shockwaves from the Gorton and Denton by-election are still reverberating through the corridors of Westminster as the Green Party secured its first by-election victory, delivering a historic blow to the ruling Labour, now feeling the full, bitter sting of voter discontent.
Hannah Spencer, a 34-year-old councilor and plumber, received 14,980 votes in the Feb. 26 election, almost 41% of all votes cast, overturning Labour majority in the Greater Manchester constituency and becoming the party’s first MP in northern England.
The result pushed the far-right Reform UK into second place, with the Labour Party, which won the seat with more than 50% of the vote in 2024, falling to third. Labour had not lost in the area since 1931.
Party organizers said Spencer knows how cost of living is a problem, and people found her credible and relatable.
"Hannah was able to 'passport' across communities because she’s genuinely relatable: a working-class plumber, grounded, direct, and credible," Asma Alam, the Green Party’s campaigns coordinator, told Anadolu. "She wasn't presenting politics as branding – she was presenting it as lived experience and practical solidarity."
Mothin Ali, a deputy leader of the Greens, said Spencer provided the "working-class credibility" that allowed the party to challenge Reform UK on its own turf. "They try to say you can blame immigrants, you can blame Black and brown people ... and all your problems will be solved," Ali said. "But when you give a message of positivity from someone who knows the struggles of everyday people, they find it welcoming."
The cost-of-living crisis continues to hit low-income households hardest, with charities reporting that a majority of poorer families are still going without essentials such as adequate food and heating despite easing inflation.
Real household incomes have fallen in recent years, and a significant share of workers report struggling to pay basic bills, fueling dissatisfaction with mainstream parties, particularly in working-class communities.
- Importance of Muslim vote
While critics were quick to label the Green victory as a "single-issue" win, party observers pointed to a much deeper level of community engagement that transcended standard electioneering.
The victory was not just built on leaflets, but on visible, physical solidarity.
A Green Party observer told Anadolu that the leadership’s efforts to engage with Muslim voters were unprecedented.
"The leader of the party Zack Polanski, and deputy leaders Mothin Ali and Rachel Millward all gathered for iftar at Manchester Central Mosque during their campaign," said the observer who wished to remain anonymous. "This is the same mosque that a man came to allegedly with an axe and a knife on Wednesday. So they really showed solidarity with the community."
The presence of the leadership was felt throughout the campaign.
"Hannah, the candidate, also joined the iftar in Manchester ... and Polanski actually joined the jamaat (congregational) prayer as well," the expert added, noting that Spencer's final social media post before the polls closed was an image from the same event.
To the Greens, this was "making hope normal," but to their opponents it provided the fuel for the "sectarian" fire, they added.
- Left united in Gorton and Denton
The sheer scale of the organizational machine behind Spencer suggests a significant realignment of the British Left.
Alam said the campaign was far more than a standard Green operation, as it became a rallying point for a "progressive unification."
"The campaign operation was strong ... buoyed by a wider left and progressive unification behind the campaign, including support and encouragement from prominent figures like Jeremy Corbyn, Salma Yaqoob, and others," she explained.
According to her, this was not merely a local personality contest, but a deliberate attempt to "draw a line against division and political complacency."
This unity sent a clear signal to the Labour leadership. "We’re also seeing a collapse of old loyalties," Alam noted. "Labour can no longer assume that progressive or working-class voters will stay put if Labour starts echoing right-wing frames."
- Accusation of 'sectarianism' and Green response
The most explosive element of the aftermath remains the accusation of "sectarianism" — a charge primarily leveled by Labour and far-right Reform figures.
The "sectarian" label is being used because far-right groups claim that the Greens targeted specific religious and ethnic groups with messages designed to appeal solely to identity rather than national policy.
In his pooled interview clip, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the Greens as “the extreme of the left” and said: "We were fighting the extremes of the right and the extremes of the left."
He said Labour was up against "Reform on the right, with their politics of hatred and division, the Greens on the left, with their politics of getting out of NATO in the middle of the conflict with Ukraine, of legalizing all drugs, including heroin and crack cocaine to give to adults."
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage described the result as "a victory for sectarian voting and cheating."
Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said that while Labour had already lost ground over Gaza, some Green tactics "left a bad taste in the mouth," such as leaflets featuring Starmer shaking hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
However, he admitted, "left-wing voters disillusioned with Labour now have somewhere else to go that doesn't appear to be a 'wasted vote.'"
"That said, there's a long history of constituencies lost in spectacular by-elections returning to the party that lost them at the next general election. So, I wouldn't write Labour off just yet, especially if it changes its leader and stops being so obsessed with chasing Reform UK voters," Bale said.
- 'Naming discrimination isn’t sectarianism'
During the Gorton and Denton campaign, the Greens communicated with voters in Urdu, Bangla, Turkish, Arabic and Chinese languages, a move critics claim balkanized the electorate.
Deputy leader Ali dismissed these claims as the bitterness of "sore losers," specifically naming Farage and Matt Goodwin, the Reform UK candidate in the by-election. "We did videos in Urdu, Bangla, Turkish, Arabic, Chinese ... (because) we're from these kind of communities ... We just transferred those lessons into what we're doing here."
Experts also pointed out hypocrisy in the "sectarian" narrative.
While the Greens are attacked for attending iftars, Reform UK recently launched its own Christian Fellowship group.
One observer referred to the rhetoric of Reform politician Ann Widdecombe, who said, "This is the day when Christians and Reform are merged."
"Can you get more sectarian than that?" the observer asked.
Alam was even more direct, calling the accusation "cynical."
She argued that the Green campaign did the opposite of narrowing the electorate: "Naming discrimination isn’t 'sectarianism. Defending communities from scapegoating isn’t identity politics – it’s basic democratic decency."