Event: Greens

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.The result marks the first time the Greens have won a British parliamentary by-election and signals the frustration of left-leaning voters with Prime Minister Keir Starmer.VideoGreen Party Defeats Labour in U.K. Special ElectionHannah Spencer, a plumber by trade, won a British parliamentary seat in a district that had been represented by the Labour Party for generations. Her victory signaled frustration from left-leaning voters with Prime Minister Keir Starmer.CreditCredit...Jon Super/Associated PressPublished Feb. 26, 2026Updated Feb. 27, 2026, 3:16 p.m. ETThe Green Party won a special election on Thursday for a British parliamentary seat in northern England, where left-leaning voters sent Prime Minister Keir Starmer a searing message of dissatisfaction.Hannah Spencer, 34, a plumber by trade and a member of the area’s local council, won the seat in a district called Gorton and Denton, southeast of Manchester, England, with 14,980 votes, or about 41 percent of the vote. Her decisive victory was the first time the Greens have ever won a parliamentary special election, known in Britain as a by-election, and means the party now has five lawmakers in Parliament.Mr. Starmer’s Labour Party came third, behind Reform U.K., a right-wing populist party that campaigns against immigration. It was a remarkable setback for Labour, which had represented the local area for generations.Reform received 10,578 votes, or about 29 percent, while Labour received 9,364 votes, or about 25 percent, underscoring a wider fracturing in British politics.In a victory speech just after 4:30 a.m. local time, Ms. Spencer credited her win to her focus on cost-of-living issues, inequality and the environment. And she chided — without naming them — politicians who attempted to divide people along race and religious lines.“I…

Few British prime ministers have been handed such a magnificent opportunity as Keir Starmer after Labour’s election victory in July 2024. With a parliamentary majority approaching 200 seats, he had a chance to reshape Britain. Just 18 months later, Starmer is one of the most despised premiers in British history. There had been deep concern about Starmer’s survival as prime minister well before last night’s by-election calamity in Gorton and Denton. He is probably safe for the next few weeks, because no sensible Labour MP, no matter how ambitious, will wish to assume the leadership ahead of this May’s local elections. Thereafter, it’s hard to see how he can survive. It could have been so different. Starmer was elected prime minister on the back of a wave of national disgust at the corrupt, chaotic, immoral and incompetent Tories. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Starmer could have turned his election victory into a moment of national renewal, fighting for social justice, decency, clean politics and (echoing Robin Cook, who resigned from Tony Blair’s cabinet rather than support the invasion of Iraq) an ethical foreign policy. Starmer chose not to do this. Instead, he waged a factional war against the Labour left. He carried out policies favoured by Labour donors rather than members. Rather than fight the far right, he copied its politics and employed its language. He bet the house on Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel. He hollowed out the Labour Party and destroyed its soul. Brutal calculation Starmer’s key adviser through this long tragedy was Morgan McSweeney, a protege of now-disgraced Peter Mandelson. McSweeney, following Mandelson, despised Labour’s traditional voters and went out of his way to humiliate the Labour left. McSweeney was a…

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party suffered ​an embarrassing election defeat on Friday (February 27, 2026). | Photo Credit: AP It was a bad night for U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Labour Party after the Green Party won the Greater Manchester parliamentary seat of Gorton and Denton on Friday (February 27, 2026) . The nativist far-right party Reform U.K. came in second and Labour in the third place in an election that could further erode Mr. Starmer’s ability to stay in position until the next general election.“This by-election has shown that there is no longer any such thing as a safe seat and there is no part of the country where the Green Party cannot win,” said 36-year-old plumber Hannah Spencer, who won the bypoll with around 40.7% of the vote.“I think this election will transform the face of British politics,” said Greens Chief Zack Polanski, during a joint press conference with Ms. Spencer in Manchester.“We have torn the roof of British politics, and that’s because people now recognise there is an alternative,” Mr. Polanski said, adding that Labour’s “stranglehold” was over as people realised there was an alternative.Labour won 25.4% of the vote, behind Reform U.K.’s 28.7%. The Conservatives got a mere 1.9% of the vote and the Liberal Democrats 1.8%.The results meant that Labour’s vote share had halved relative to its 2024 general election performance in the constituency — having lost voters to Reform on the right and more significantly to the Greens on the left.There were divisions with Labour on the choice for the by-election with a faction preferring the charismatic Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham over councillor Angeliki Stogia.Earlier this month, Mr. Starmer and Labour’s governing body found themselves at the centre of criticism for denying Mr. Burnham permission to run, with…

Both Reform and the UK's governing Labour Party have accused the Green Party of "sectarian" politics, after Green candidate Hannah Spencer won the Gorton and Denton by-election last night. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose Labour candidate came third, said his left-wing rivals had welcomed the "divisive, sectarian politics" of veteran firebrand George Galloway, while Reform's losing candidate Matt Goodwin declared: "We are losing our country. A dangerous Muslim sectarianism has emerged. We have only one general election left to save Britain.” Other Reform politicians repeated claims that there were high rates of "family voting" in the multicultural Gorton and Denton seat, in which one in four voters is Muslim. "Family voting" refers to the illegal practice of voters conferring, colluding or directing each other on voting at the polling station. The pary's leader, Nigel Farage, swiftly linked these claims to Muslims, saying: “This is deeply concerning and raises serious questions about the integrity of the democratic process in predominantly Muslim areas.” On Friday afternoon he announced that Reform had "reported the many cases of ‘family voting’ to the Electoral Commission and Greater Manchester Police". New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Goodwin, now widely referred to online as Matt Badloss after coming second to Spencer, further said that "the progressives were told how to vote", insisting that "Islamists and woke progressives came together to dominate the constituency." Robert Jenrick, a former Conservative minister who, like a growing number of his former colleagues has recently defected to Reform, decried "South Asian men instructing women how to vote at polling stations in modern Britain" and condemned what he called an "appalling level of sectarianism". Starmer referred to challenges to Labour on the extreme left and extreme…

Lawyers representing pro-Palestine campaigners charged with breaking protest laws in the UK described the case against them as “unlawful” as the government presented its case against them on Thursday. Last year, Ben Jamal, the head of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), and Chris Nineham, vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition, were charged with breaking the Public Order Act after a demonstration in London in which some protesters walked to Trafalgar Square in the direction of the BBC headquarters after the Metropolitan Police imposed restrictions which forbade them from marching. Both activists pleaded not guilty to the charges. On Thursday, Kevin Dent KC, representing the British government, accused Jamal of “inciting crowds” to break the law and march towards the BBC's headquarters in central London, which had been the original intention of the protest organisers before the restrictions were imposed. During proceedings, Dent showed the court a video of a speech made in January 2025 in which Jamal told a crowd that he and other protest leaders planned to attempt to walk towards the BBC’s headquarters to protest the corporation’s reporting of the genocide in Gaza as an example of “incitement”. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters “Mr Jamal incited the crowd and indeed they did,” Dent told the court. In response, Mark Summers KC, representing Jamal and Nineham, rejected Dent’s claims and declared the Met’s protest restrictions as “unlawful” - citing a previous ruling made by the Court of Appeal that ruled legislation granting the police “unlimited powers” to restrict protests was created unlawfully. “It is patently clear from the text of the speech that Mr Jamal was not inciting anyone to breach conditions,” said Summers. 'It is patently clear from the…

The Greens’ stunning by-election victory reveals a fraying nation. So the race everyone said was too close to call wasn’t so close after all. The Green Party’s Hannah Spencer has won the Gorton and Denton by-election with 14,980 votes, nearly 41 per cent of all those cast in the Greater Manchester seat. Meanwhile, Reform UK has pushed a flailing Labour Party into third place, taking 10,578 votes to Labour’s 9,364. That noise you can hear in the background is blood vessels bursting in Downing Street. This was Labour’s race to lose, and it has done so spectacularly. Keir Starmer’s reverse-midas touch has proven even more formidable than anyone dared think. This race began with the prime minister blocking popular Manchester mayor Andy Burnham from standing, to avoid giving his rival a place in Westminster, leaving Manchester councillor Angeliki Stogia holding the bag. It has finished with a 26.4 per cent swing from Labour to Greens. The Zack Polanski clown car is now officially the go-to vehicle for disaffected ‘progressive’ revolt. If Labour can be humiliated here, it can be humiliated anywhere. At the General Election just 19 months ago, Labour won more than 50 per cent of the vote in the constituency. Gorton and Denton was its 38th safest seat. It had held it for generations. Now it has become a neat demonstration of this Labour Party’s ability to haemorrhage votes in all directions. Graduates and Muslims seem to have broken to the Greens, while white working-class voters plumped more for Reform. Once-coveted voter blocs are abandoning Starmer left and right. The Labour coalition has disintegrated. This is a stunning win for the Greens. No one can take that away from them. But the manner in which they won bodes ill not just for Labour, but for our fractious nation,…

Election officials say staff saw no undue influence at polling stations A person walks through a doorway printed with the faces of Reform UK candidate Matt Goodwin and party leader Nigel Farage in Denton, northwest England, on 5 February 2026 (Oli Scarff/AFP) Published date: 27 February 2026 07:13 GMT | Last update: 6 sec ago Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesperson, has deleted an X post celebrating a satirical story of voters cheering for Reform in a polling station - before his party denounced claims the vote was coerced in "predominantly Muslim" areas of Gorton and Denton. Last night claims emerged that there were high rates of “family voting”, the illegal practice of voters conferring, colluding or directing each other on voting, at the polling station. On Friday morning, the Green Party won the Gorton and Denton by-election, with Reform coming second. Green candidate Hannah Spencer won 14,980 votes, 40.7 percent of the total. Reform candidate Matt Goodwin came in second place with 10,578 votes (28.7 percent), and Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia received 9,364 votes (25.4 percent). On Thursday afternoon, Reform’s Yusuf shared a post on X by a student saying: “Just took 93-year-old mum to vote, she’s registered blind. In a very loud voice she said, 'Which box for Reform?' A cheer went up from waiting voters.” New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters “Love this!” Yusuf said, quoting the post. The student, James Bennett, commented “Zia” with a crying emoji at 5:20pm. Bennett clarified on X that his post was a joke, saying his mother is in fact aged 41, “not blind”, “living 3 hours from Manchester”, “hard left” and “very confused right now”. Yusuf’s post has since disappeared. On Thursday night,…

Result puts Reform UK in second and raises pressure on Starmer Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer gives her acceptance speech after winning the Gorton and Denton Parliamentary by-election, in Manchester, northern England, on 27 February 2026. Paul ELLIS / AFP Published date: 27 February 2026 06:35 GMT | Last update: 48 sec ago The Green Party has decisively won the Gorton and Denton by-election in a humiliation for Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, which came in third behind Reform UK. Green candidate Hannah Spencer won 14,980 votes, 40.7 percent of the total, in a seat that was won by Starmer's party less than two years ago. Reform candidate Matt Goodwin came in second place with 10,578 votes (28.7 percent), and Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia received 9,364 votes (25.4 percent). The Conservatives, the party governing the UK as recently as July 2024, won only 1.9 percent of the vote. Spencer, a plumber and plasterer by profession, said in her victory speech on Friday morning that she will “work hard” for everyone in Gorton and Denton. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters "Our struggles might not be the same... but we stick up for each other," she said. "Life has changed. Instead of working for a nice life... we're working to line the pockets of billionaires. We are being bled dry. "I think everybody should get a nice life. Clearly, I'm not the only person who thinks that." Spencer slammed politicians who she said “scapegoat” others. This follows a ferocious by-election which saw the Greens face off against Reform and Labour. More than 40 percent of people in Gorton and Denton are ethnic minorities and one in four are Muslim. During the campaign, the Greens accused…

From the BAFTAs ‘n-word’ controversy to the Valdo Calocane scandal, victimhood culture still haunts us. Rather than being dead, or in the process of dying, wokery remains very much alive. In fact, the corrosive politics of identity is in rude health. We saw this in evidence this week with the news that the authorities refused to detain the Nottingham triple killer Valdo Calocane because they were fearful of the ‘over-representation of young black men’ in custody. We saw it in the pious and hysterical response to the Tourette’s activist who uttered the n-word at the BAFTAs. The politics of identity were openly weaponised by the Greens at the Gorton and Denton by-election, who in releasing a campaign video in Urdu, both stoked and helped to entrench sectarian divisions in this country. And it arrived with the news that rather than being a fading presence, the rule of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace is a more imposing behemoth than ever. According to a report by the Policy Exchange think tank, the human-resources industry – that chief purveyor of DEI doctrine – now costs businesses an estimated £10 billion a year, having swelled its numbers in the UK by over 80 per cent between 2011 and 2023. Arguing that measures such as diversity-hiring targets ‘reduce productivity’ and ‘create division’, Policy Exchange calls for the government to repeal the ‘positive action’ provisions in the Equality Act, which permit programmes aimed exclusively at minority groups. The fact that DEI still wields such power in Britain, abetted and enforced by state legislation, goes against the accepted narrative. Ever since the beginning of last year, when Donald Trump opened his new presidency with an assault on DEI measures in government, many have felt confident to declare that woke is over. Yet headline after…