UPDATE WITH MORE DETAILS, REMARKS BY PARTY LEADERS
By Aysu Bicer
LONDON (AA) - The British Green Party has won its first-ever Westminster by-election, securing a historic victory as the ruling Labour Party felt the sting of voters’ discontent.
Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and Green councilor, overturned a 14,980-vote, almost 41% of all votes cast, Labour majority in the Gorton and Denton constituency to become the party’s first MP in northern England.
The result pushed Reform UK into second place, with the Labour Party falling to third. Labour had not lost in the area since 1931.
In her victory speech, Spencer, who becomes the Green Party's fifth MP, said she would fight for people who feel “left behind” and described herself as no different from those she represents.
“Even in chaos, even under pressure, I get things done. I didn’t grow up wanting to be a politician. I am a plumber,” she said.
“I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That is what we do.”
Spencer said voters had told her “in their thousands” that they were “sick of being let down and looked down on” and tired of “our hard work making other people rich.”
- 'We defeated the parties of billionaire donors'
She also used her speech to criticize what she described as divisive politics, including the use of Islamophobic rhetoric.
“I won’t accept this victory tonight without calling out politicians and divisive figures who constantly scapegoat and blame our communities for all the problems in society,” she said. “My Muslim friends and neighbors are just like me, human.”
Joking about her new role, she added: “Now, to my customers, I’m sorry, but I think I might have to cancel the work that you haven’t booked in, because I’m heading to parliament.”
She pledged to represent working people when she takes her seat at Westminster.
“When I get there, I will make space for everyone doing jobs like mine. We will finally get a seat at the table. We can demand better without hating each other.”
She said the Greens had “run a hopeful campaign backed by thousands of volunteers and activists” and said they had “defeated the parties of billionaire donors.”
- Starmer calls byelection result 'very disappointing'
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.”
They were “the extremes in politics," he said, referring to both parties, claiming that they could “identify the grievances” but that they could not unite the country and solve problems.
At a Green press conference, the party’s leader, Zack Polanski, criticized Labour’s campaign attacks over drug policy.
"We have the highest death rate from drugs in the whole of Europe. And Keir Starmer, rather than taking a public health approach or looking at harm reduction, thought it sensible to make cheap political attacks," he said.
“Now that’s all water under the bridge because Hannah’s sat here as the MP.
“But I do hope this Labour government will reflect on how they’ve conducted themselves during this campaign, how they’ve taken some really serious issues, trivialized them, and made them into cheap political points.
“Whereas actually, I think the public is in a lot more mature and nuanced place than sometimes politicians who have been around for too long and … don’t have the courage to lead.”
Meanwhile, far-right Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, whose party finished second, described the result as “a victory for sectarian voting and cheating.”
“This election was a victory for sectarian voting and cheating. Matt Goodwin was a great candidate for us," he said in a statement on US social media company X.
“Roll on the elections on May 7. It will be goodbye to Starmer and goodbye to the Tory Party.”