Major Blow for Starmer as Labour Falls to Third in By-Election
Labour suffered a dramatic defeat in the Gorton and Denton by-election, with the party falling to third place behind the Green Party and Reform UK in a result that attracted intense attention across Westminster.
The Green Party’s Hannah Spencer won the seat with 14,980 votes, while Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin finished second on 10,578. Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia received 9,364 votes, placing the governing party third in a constituency it had won comfortably at the 2024 general election.
The result was particularly significant because Gorton and Denton had been a strong Labour constituency. At the 2024 general election, Labour won 50.8% of the vote and had a majority of 13,413. In the by-election, its vote share fell to 25.4%, while the Greens rose to 40.6% and Reform to 28.7%.
The scale of the change made the contest one of the most closely watched by-elections of the year.
A historic Green victory
Hannah Spencer’s victory was significant for the Green Party because it represented its first-ever win in a UK parliamentary by-election.
The Greens had previously established a parliamentary presence through general elections, but taking Gorton and Denton represented a new stage in the party’s electoral development.
Spencer, a local councillor and plumber, secured more than 40% of the vote. Her victory also meant Labour lost a constituency where it had previously enjoyed a substantial majority.
The result was described by election analysts as an important development in the changing relationship between Labour and voters in parts of Greater Manchester.
It also demonstrated that the governing party faced competition from more than one direction.
Reform UK finished second, while the Greens moved from third place at the 2024 general election to first in the by-election.
Labour’s vote falls sharply
The most striking feature of the result was Labour’s decline.
At the 2024 general election, Labour received 18,555 votes in Gorton and Denton.
Two years later, that figure had fallen to 9,364.
The party therefore lost almost half of its previous vote in the constituency.
Its vote share dropped from 50.8% to 25.4%. At the same time, the Greens increased their share from 13.2% to 40.6%, while Reform increased from 14.1% to 28.7%.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats also performed poorly. The Conservatives received 706 votes, while the Liberal Democrats received 653, putting them fourth and fifth respectively.
The combined performance of the Greens and Reform was particularly notable, with the two parties taking a large majority of the votes between them.
Why did voters move away from Labour?
There was no single explanation for the result.
The Guardian reported that activists from both Labour and the Greens pointed to changes among Muslim voters, with some voters citing Keir Starmer’s position on Gaza as an important reason for moving away from Labour.
That issue was particularly relevant in a constituency with a significant Muslim population.
However, by-elections can also be shaped by local factors, candidate appeal, turnout, tactical voting and the desire to send a message to a government without changing the national government itself.
That makes it difficult to treat any individual by-election as a complete measure of national public opinion.
The result nevertheless provided clear evidence that Labour’s support in this particular constituency had changed substantially since 2024.
A warning about the political landscape
The Gorton and Denton result came during a period of pressure on Starmer’s leadership.
The defeat gave renewed attention to questions about Labour’s electoral strategy and its ability to retain support among voters who had helped return the party to government in 2024.
The Independent reported that the result raised questions about Starmer’s authority and Labour’s approach to competition from Reform UK and the Greens.
For Labour, the fact that it finished behind both parties was especially significant.
The party was not simply defeated by one challenger.
Instead, its support was squeezed from different directions.
The Greens attracted substantial support from voters on Labour’s left, while Reform appealed to voters seeking a different approach on issues including immigration and national politics.
The significance of the “sixth” figure
One detail in the headline deserves clarification.
Reports described the result as the sixth-largest Labour majority overturned at a by-election since the Second World War.
That does not mean Labour came sixth.
The final order was:
- Green Party — 14,980 votes
- Reform UK — 10,578
- Labour — 9,364
- Conservative — 706
- Liberal Democrat — 653
The distinction matters because the phrase “Labour came sixth” would give a materially different impression of what happened.
The wider pattern of by-elections
The Gorton and Denton result was one of several significant Westminster by-elections during the 2024 Parliament.
The House of Commons Library records that Reform UK won Runcorn and Helsby in May 2025, the Greens won Gorton and Denton in February 2026, Andy Burnham won Makerfield for Labour in June 2026, Douglas Lumsden won Aberdeen South for the Conservatives, Lara Bird retained Arbroath and Broughty Ferry for the SNP, and Nigel Farage retained Clacton for Reform UK in August.
The results show that different parties have been able to make gains in different parts of Britain.
That makes it difficult to interpret any single by-election as a definitive national verdict.
By-elections are often fought under unusual circumstances and attract different levels of attention from voters and parties compared with general elections.
A particularly important result for the Greens
For the Green Party, however, Gorton and Denton represented an important breakthrough.
The party had previously performed well in some local elections and had established parliamentary representation, but a parliamentary by-election victory demonstrated that it could convert local support into a Westminster seat.
The result also came as the party was attempting to expand its electoral base beyond areas where it had traditionally been strongest.
The Greens’ success meant Labour had lost a seat that it had won with more than half of the vote only two years earlier.
Reform also makes gains
Reform UK’s second-place finish was another important feature of the contest.
The party increased its vote share from 14.1% in 2024 to 28.7% in the by-election.
Although Reform did not win the seat, its result showed that it remained a significant competitor in a constituency that had traditionally been associated with Labour.
The combination of Reform and Green support meant Labour and the Conservatives together accounted for a much smaller proportion of the vote than they had historically received in the constituency.
What the result does — and does not — prove
The by-election clearly demonstrates that Labour’s support in Gorton and Denton fell sharply between 2024 and 2026.
It also demonstrates that the Greens were able to win a seat previously held by Labour, while Reform established itself as the second-largest party in the contest.
But the result cannot by itself establish that the same pattern would occur across the whole country.
A parliamentary by-election involves one constituency, a specific group of candidates and a particular set of local circumstances.
National elections involve hundreds of constituencies and different campaigns, issues and voter choices.
The Institute for Government has similarly noted that by-elections can produce distinctive results and should be understood within the wider pattern of parliamentary contests.
A changing political contest
The Gorton and Denton result nevertheless illustrated how Britain’s political competition had become more fragmented.
Labour’s traditional position as the dominant party in many northern constituencies was being challenged from multiple directions.
The Greens demonstrated their ability to win in a former Labour stronghold.
Reform showed that it could build substantial support even without taking the seat.
And the Conservatives, once one of Labour’s principal competitors, finished well behind both challengers.
The result therefore offered a snapshot of a rapidly changing political environment.
For Labour, the immediate fact was straightforward: a constituency that had returned a Labour MP with more than 50% of the vote in 2024 elected a Green MP two years later, with Labour finishing third.
The reference to “sixth” describes the historical scale of the majority overturned — not Labour’s position in the result.
That distinction provides the clearest way to understand what actually happened on election night.