A candidate from the UK's left-wing Green Party has comfortably won a closely-watched by-election for a vacant parliamentary seat, delivering an embarrassing defeat to Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party in one of its former strongholds.
Results announced on Friday showed the Greens' Hannah Spencer, a 34-year-old councillor and plumber, secured 40.7% of the vote in the by-election in Gorton and Denton, a constituency in Greater Manchester that had been considered a safe Labour seat for almost a century.
In an outcome analysts said points to the fracturing of the UK's traditional two-party politics, the hard-right candidate from the populist, anti-immigration Reform Party finished in second place.
Labour, which won over half the vote in Gorton and Denton at the last general election in 2024, finished a bruising third.
The Green Party has positioned itself as an alternative to Labour, arguing the governing party has moved away from some values it once championed. The Greens and their leader Zack Polanski have been vocal in condemning Israel's war on Gaza and supporting Palestinians, angering many Labour voters.
Political scientist John Curtice called the result a "seismic moment" signalling that the "future of British politics looks more uncertain than at any stage" since World War II.
In her victory speech, Spencer said she felt compelled to call out "politicians and divisive figures who constantly scapegoat and blame our communities for all the problems in society".
The loss of what was considered a safe seat, in the country's biggest electoral test in nearly a year, adds to mounting pressure on embattled Prime Minister Starmer. He has faced calls for resignation amid Labour's declining popularity and ongoing turmoil.
Starmer personally invested political capital by blocking popular Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, widely seen as a potential leadership challenger, from standing in the race and visiting the constituency before the vote.
Spencer's victory—the Greens' first win in a by-election—gives the party its fifth seat in parliament, while top-polling Reform, viewed as the biggest challenge to the government at the ballot box, has eight.
Both parties, along with the centrist Liberal Democrats, are polling in double digits, threatening the traditional Labour-Conservative duopoly in British politics.
Reform leader Nigel Farage claimed on X, without evidence, that the Greens' win was "a victory for sectarian voting and cheating". A Greens spokesperson dismissed this as "an attempt to undermine the democratic result" that was "straight out of the Trump playbook".
The contest was triggered after former Labour MP Andrew Gwynne stood down for health reasons.
Source: www.aljazeera.com