Green party wins Gorton and Denton byelection, pushing Labour to third place
The Green party has pulled off a landmark victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection in a significant blow to Keir Starmer, who vowed to “keep on fighting” after the humiliating defeat.Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and Green party councillor, was elected as the party’s first MP in northern England after overturning Labour’s 13,000-vote majority.Labour came third in the tightly contested race, 5,616 votes behind the Greens on 14,980 votes, while Reform UK finished second with 10,578 votes.The result represents a 25.3% drop in Labour’s vote compared with 2024.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats lost their deposits as they won fewer than 5% of the votes, with both under 2%,The Greens’ victory in a Labour stronghold, its first ever in a Westminster byelection, establishes the party as a serious political force and a credible anti-Reform alternative,It will deepen concerns among Labour MPs that Starmer’s party is haemorrhaging voters on the left in an effort to thwart the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform,The result will also prompt further scrutiny of the prime minister’s decision to block Andy Burnham from standing as the Labour candidate in a city where he enjoys significant public support,Starmer said the result was “very disappointing”, as he told reporters: “Incumbent governments quite often get results like that midterm.
” Asked if he was going to resign, the prime minister said: “I will keep on fighting for those people for as long as I’ve got breath in my body.”It is the first time in nearly 100 years that the Gorton area of Manchester has not been represented by a Labour MP.In an emotional victory speech, Spencer – who becomes the fifth Green party MP – said people were being “bled dry”.She said: “Instead of working for a nice life, we’re working to line the pockets of billionaires.We’re being bled dry.
And I don’t think it’s extreme or radical to think that working hard should get you a nice life.”Spencer emphasised community solidarity and said she would call out politicians “who constantly scapegoat and blame our communities for all the problems in society.My Muslim friends and neighbours are just like me – human.”The byelection was triggered by the resignation of Andrew Gwynne on health grounds in January.The former MP was under investigation by parliament for offensive messages he sent in a WhatsApp group of local Labour figures.
On polling day Labour insiders had seemed more confident as polling showed they were virtually neck-and-neck with the Greens.They hoped voters might stick with Labour, whose candidate was the local councillor Angeliki Stogia, rather than back an insurgent party and risk a Reform win.However, the Greens’ energetic campaign – Spencer found near-instant local fame as “Hannah the plumber” while thousands of volunteers travelled from across the UK to support her – was enough to secure victory.Labour sources said the party had not been forgiven by many of its Muslim voters for its stance on Gaza – an issue capitalised on by the Greens in the Manchester side of the constituency.“Gaza has not been forgotten or forgiven,” said a Labour councillor in the constituency.
“Lots of us are now worried for our seats”.Within hours of polls closing at 10pm, Labour’s deputy leader, Lucy Powell, had confirmed defeat to journalists at the count in Manchester Central convention complex.Turnout in the closely watched seat was 47.6%, fractionally lower than in the 2024 general election.Labour had sought to pitch the byelection as a choice between “unity and hope” or the “toxic division” of Reform, whose candidate, Matt Goodwin, was a surprise choice in a seat where about 28% of the population is Muslim.
Goodwin, an academic turned GB News presenter, has called for a policy to tackle “the Islamisation of British society” and claimed that UK-born people from minority ethnic backgrounds are not necessarily British.Speaking to journalists as he arrived at the count, Goodwin blamed his loss on “a coalition of Islamists and woke progressives”, which he said had “come together to dominate the constituency”.He accused the Green party of “playing sectarian politics”, in part by writing to constituents in Urdu: “This kind of campaign, in different languages appealing to specific groups based on their characteristics, is unacceptable in modern Britain.”Asked whether he was claiming the result was illegitimate, he did not respond as he was whisked away.Starmer’s party dispatched a cast of cabinet ministers to Gorton and Denton in an attempt to shore up Labour support, but the prime minister was notably absent in the seat until this week.
The Labour leader had faced weeks of damaging headlines over his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite knowing the former minister had maintained a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein after the child sex offender’s arrest,Starmer also faced intense criticism from Labour MPs over the decision to prevent Burnham from standing as the candidate in Gorton and Denton in what was seen as an attempt to head off a leadership challenge,The Mainstream Labour group, which is backed by Burnham, said it was a “catastrophic error” to block the Greater Manchester mayor from standing,“This loss was avoidable,” the group said,“Angeliki, members and our party staff worked tirelessly, but our leader and sections of the NEC blocked the one candidate who could have won it for us.
”The closely fought contest also became mired in accusations of dodgy polls and dirty tricks.Labour and the Greens traded barbs repeatedly in a sign that the byelection would be won or lost as a result of the battle on the left, with Reform potentially standing to benefit from a split vote.Reform was hauled before the high court on Wednesday over letters purporting to be from a “concerned neighbour” that failed to carry the party’s political imprint as required by electoral law.Farage’s party blamed an error at its printing supplier, which accepted responsibility.
Diagnosing mental health conditions need not be a case of yes/no | Letters
Lucy Foulkes explores the possibility that the rising numbers of young people receiving a diagnosis of mental illness or ADHD are subjects of overdiagnosis (Are we really overdiagnosing mental illness?, 22 February). She posits that changes in terminology, increasing societal awareness and reductions in stigma are all factors in the increase in diagnoses.However, there is another way of looking at this issue. If we treat ADHD as binary (you have it or you do not), we are missing the possibility that we all lie somewhere on a continuum with diagnosed ADHD towards one end (and perhaps an ability to focus and concentrate at the other). A diagnosis of ADHD then depends on where the line is drawn
‘Violent bully’ who broke partner’s neck and left her paralysed jailed for 16 years
A “violent and controlling bully” who broke his partner’s neck, leaving her paralysed and her life “destroyed”, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.Robert Easom, a landscape gardener, violently assaulted Trudi Burgess, a schoolteacher and former singer, when she threatened to leave him after enduring eight years of coercive, controlling behaviour.A court heard that Easom, 57, pinned Burgess down in a rage and pushed her head into her body until her neck snapped. He denied a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent but was found guilty after 27 minutes of deliberation by a jury at Preston crown court in November.He had admitted causing the injury but denied intending to cause her serious harm
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Teenage girls in Europe have the highest rate of tobacco use in their age group around the world, while one in seven adolescents across the continent use vapes and e-cigarettes, figures show.The data, based on analysis by the World Health Organization (WHO), shows that Europe is on course to maintain its status as the world’s biggest consumer of tobacco up to 2030, and reveals “particularly concerning” trends of tobacco use among women and young people.Four in 10 adult female smokers around the world – about 62 million women – live in Europe, while 4 million teenagers aged 13 to 15 across the continent use tobacco products.For vapes and e-cigarettes, Europe has the highest prevalence of teenage regular users, at 14.3% of children aged between 13 and 15
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Kinship carers in England to be given financial support in government pilot
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Drop in overseas workers is ‘car crash’ for UK hospitals and care homes, say experts
Hospitals and care homes in the UK face “an impending car crash”, experts have warned, as research shows the number of overseas nurses and carers has collapsed.Analysis of Home Office quarterly data reveals the number of overseas nurses granted entry to the UK has fallen by 93% over three years. Just 1,777 overseas nurses were granted entry in 2025, compared with 26,100 in 2022.Visas for workers in the caring personal service occupations category – which includes care workers, but also nursing auxiliaries, ambulance staff and dental workers – had the steepest decline in new workers from overseas in absolute terms.The figure fell from 107,847 workers granted entry in 2023 to just 3,178 in 2025, a 97% decline over two years
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