Greens first, Reform second, Labour trailing – and the Tories losing their deposit. This felt like a rejection of the status quo
Polly Toynbee
Guardian columnist
A mighty sigh of relief sweeps across the country. Above all else, what mattered was the emphatic rejection of Nigel Farage’s poison, as a resounding 67% of progressive voters chased off Reform’s mere 29% support. The darkness of Reform’s apparent poll lead starts to melt away. The Gorton and Denton result avoided a split between anti-Reform parties that would let Farage’s party slither into the seat despite overwhelming opposition. Its malevolent candidate, Matt Goodwin, whisked away with a characteristically sulphurous hiss of spite about the “a coalition of Islamists and woke progressives”.
The calamitous result for Labour is, in comparison, a second-order matter in this era of the crumbling old party duopoly. (The Tories lost their deposit.) Keir Starmer suffers blow after blow as battalions of troubles fall on him, knocked by the Epstein fallout despite no personal connection, while Trump – so far – escapes despite close intimacy.
