Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer poses for a selfie with Green Party leader Zack Polanski after winning the Gorton and Denton Parliamentary by-election in Manchester, northern England on February 27, 2026. PAUL ELLIS / AFP
Britain's ruling Labour party slumped to an embarrassing third-place finish as it lost a traditional northern English heartland to the left-wing Greens in a crunch local poll result Friday that heaps pressure on unpopular Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Labour also finished behind the hard-right, anti-immigrant Reform UK party in the by-election for the parliamentary seat of Gorton and Denton in Manchester, as the country's traditional two-party system fractures.
The result in a seat that Labour has dominated for decades shows how the party is being squeezed by both ends of the political spectrum and is likely to increase chatter about how much longer the 63-year-old Starmer can stay in office. It also suggests that Britons appear more willing to look towards insurgent parties for answers on long-standing, hot-button issues like the high cost of living and irregular immigration.
Labour won the constituency with almost 51% of the vote at the July 2024 general election that swept Starmer to power and ousted the Conservatives from 14 consecutive years in office. But his government has since been beset by numerous policy reversals and several rows, including over the appointment of Peter Mandelson, an associate of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as Britain's ambassador to Washington.
