The Green Party has secured a historic victory in the Gorton and Denton by-election following a hard-fought campaign accused of employing “sectarian” tactics.
Hannah Spencer topped the ballot in the Greater Manchester seat with 14,980 votes, ahead of Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin on 10,578 and Labour’s Angeliki Stogia on 9,364.
The 34-year-old plumber, and leader of the Green Party’s group on Trafford Council, decried rising inequality in her acceptance speech, saying: “Instead of working for a nice life, we're working to line the pockets of billionaires. We are being bled dry. And I don't think it's extreme or radical to think working hard should get you a nice life.”
However, her election campaign has been accused of employing tactics that one Labour peer described as “sectarian” to appeal to the Muslim community, which made up 28 per cent of the electorate.
One leaflet depicted Spencer donning a keffiyeh while standing outside a mosque and featured writing in Urdu calling for Labour to be “punished” for its stance on the conflict in Gaza.
The Greens also released videos in Urdu and Bangla featuring images of Sir Keir Starmer with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the deputy prime minister, David Lammy, with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Reacting to the result, the chair of the Labour Party, Anna Turley, described it as “disappointing”.
The by-election was called after former health minister Andrew Gwynne resigned due to ill health last month.
Although it was considered one of the safest Labour seats in the country, the party was embroiled in controversy after Greater Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham was prevented from standing for selection as its candidate, a decision one Jewish Labour MP described as “madness” at the time.
Turley continued: “We will continue to deliver a programme for government that tackles the cost of living crisis families are facing, creates opportunities for young people and invests in our public services.
“The politics of anger and easy answers offered by the Greens and Reform won’t deliver this.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage appeared to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the result, describing it as “a victory for sectarian voting and cheating” in a post on X.
Goodwin, his party’s candidate, issued an extraordinary statement following his defeat, adding: “We are losing our country. A dangerous Muslim sectarianism has emerged. We have only one general election left to save Britain.”
Their comments followed election observers Democracy Volunteers raising issues with what they termed “concerningly high levels” of “family voting”, where two voters either confer, collude or direct each other on voting in the ballot booth together, a breach of the 2023 Ballot Secrecy Act.
As polling closed on Thursday night, John Ault, the group’s director, said: “In the other recent Westminster parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby, we saw family voting in 12 per cent of polling stations, affecting 1 per cent of voters. In Gorton and Denton, we observed family voting in 68 per cent of polling stations, affecting 12 per cent of those voters observed.”
“The team also observed cases of voters being turned away. However, in each case, this was due to them not being registered voters for Westminster elections, such as having EU citizenship, and only being allowed to vote in local elections.
“The team also saw a number of voters taking photographs of their ballot papers and one voter being authorised to vote despite them already having been marked as voted earlier in the day.”
However, Manchester City Council, which oversaw the election, disputed Democracy Volunteers’ account, saying: “Polling station staff are trained to look out for any evidence of undue influence on voters. No such issues have been reported today.
“If Democracy Volunteers were so concerned about alleged issues, they could and should have raised them with us during polling hours so that immediate action could be taken.”
To get more Politics news, click here to sign up for our free politics newsletter.