Standing outside Iqra mosque in Longsight, Manchester, I ask worshippers how they voted in the by-election. The language barrier is often profound but everybody knows one word: “Green.”
But why? Was it the party’s policies to tax the very wealthy, plans for public ownership of railways, water and energy, large-scale building of social housing and renewable energy, or its furious condemnation of the Israel’s treatment of Gaza?
Two men are behind the counter of nearby Halal Meat & Poultry, their white aprons smattered with blood. On the wall is a campaign poster for the Gorton & Denton by-election with the simplest of political messages: “VOTE GREEN, 26th February”.
“We have always voted Labour but for the first time we voted Greens,” Samiullah Ullah, 35, says. “We like Hannah [Spencer, the new Green MP]. She seems like a real person. Like she means what she says.” His colleague Mohammed Sajed, 27, agrees. “They are about progress. Labour has done nothing for us.”
The pair cannot name specific Green policies but say the party represents something new and relatable. That is believed by many in this diverse community with a heavy Muslim population. Ullah says: “My entire street voted Greens, everybody.”
Fosel Mih, 45, a Muslim of Bangladeshi heritage, works in an industrial kitchen making sauces. “My brother decided to vote for Greens so I did,” says Mih. “They [the Greens] are promising to help the young people. We want more jobs which are better paid. Labour had their chance. They did nothing.”
Fosel Mih, 45
JAMES SPEAKMAN FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
Another Bangladeshi Green voter, Mohammed Rahim, 25, brings up Labour’s plans to raise the qualifying period to apply for indefinite leave to remain from five to ten years, though it will depend on jobs and skills. It would also require good English language skills. “[Labour are] making it harder and harder for immigrants,” says Rahim. “Greens are a fresh start.”
Spencer claimed victory over Labour and Reform with 14,980 votes and a majority of 4,402. The turnout was 47 per cent, despite the national attention and heavy groundwork by Labour, Reform and Greens.
Every street seems to be littered with red, blue and green placards, posters and leaflets. “THIS IS OUR LAST CHANCE,” says a Green leaflet, with a picture of Nigel Farage and Donald Trump laughing on the front. “IF YOU DON’T VOTE, YOU GET REFORM.” On the back of the leaflet it reads, “Tactical voting organisations are clear, vote Green to stop Reform.”
A Green Party leaflet in Gorton & Denton
JAMES SPEAKMAN FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
Leaflets were created in Urdu and Bangla and focused on local issues such as the cost of living, housing and opposition to Reform. A campaign video showed Sir Keir Starmer alongside Narendra Modi, playing on international grievances relating to the Indian prime minister Hindu nationalist ideology which is causing problems for Muslims in India. It also shows David Lammy, the deputy prime minister, shaking hands with Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel. The video cuts to aerial footage of Gaza as Spencer, speaking in Urdu, says: “Politicians aren’t working for us.”
Spencer becomes the Green Party’s fifth MP and first in Greater Manchester, having secured 40.7 per cent of the vote (14,980), compared with Labour’s 25.4 per cent (9,364), and Reform’s 28.7 per cent (10,578). Aged 34 and born in Bolton, Spencer left school at 16 for Bolton College to train as a plumber and later ran her own business, plumbing homes and fitting heat pumps.
She was elected to Trafford council in May 2023 to represent the Hale ward, one of the most affluent in the region and home to footballers and Coronation Street stars.
• Who is Hannah Spencer, the new Green Party MP in Gorton & Denton?
‘It’s possible to care about more than one thing’
Green activists put up poster placards in Gorton during the campaign
THE SUNDAY TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JAMES GLOSSOP
Many politicians have addressed how the Muslim vote against Labour came from a perceived lack of action on Gaza, but people in Longsight and Levenshulme High Street, diverse areas where the Greens performed well, seem to care more about cost of living pressures, water bills going up, rents going up, reading glasses being too expensive to replace and toothache because you can’t get a dentist.
On her first day in the job, Spencer tells me there were three reasons people voted Green. The first was her focus on the cost of living. The second was commitment to better public services and third was a lack of trust in other parties and politicians.
What about Gaza? “I think it’s offensive to think about one single group of people in a certain way,” Spencer says, meeting constituents in an arts centre. “It’s quite possible to care about other things, like the cost of living and public services. I wouldn’t say Gaza was one of the more important issues here.”
Spencer has a strong Mancunian accent, uses phrases like “obvs”, takes selfies and likes chips and curry sauce. “People want hope,” she says. “Hope not hate.” She heads to the Green campaign headquarters — a room on a row of shops filled with piles of leaflets, newspapers, discarded takeaway boxes and maps of the constituency.
Spencer tucks into chips and curry sauce
JAMES SPEAKMAN FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
On the wall people have stuck heart-shaped messages reading: “One road we did had more houses with our posters than houses without — Greening Rd”, “Nearby resident comes to HQ, asking how they could help. ‘I don’t normally ever vote but for once I feel full of hope’.”
Outside a presumably less hopeful man passes by in a white van shouting: “You f***ing traitor.” It is impossible to say his motivation. Is he a Labour voter angry at constituents betraying the left by voting Green? Or a Reform voter frustrated that their vision of patriotism is not playing out at the ballot box? Who can say?
This by-election is important. Labour insiders in Greater Manchester say there is now national concern that the result could be replicated around the country in a general election, as the Greens become seen as the party who can offer a fresh start and stop Reform.
Environment barely mentioned
To delve deeper into why those in Gorton & Denton voted Green, I joined a focus group, set up by the polling organisation More in Common of people who previously voted Labour but have swapped to the Green vote.
Malud, not his real name, who runs a local taxi firm, says Labour has “lost touch with working-class people”.
“I have been following Hannah,” he says. “And I thought — you know what? For a change, I’m going to vote for her. Hannah is a working-class girl, a local girl who understands everybody. I think she understands people’s problems more than anybody else.”
Several others agree: Labour has lost touch with the working class.
Sue, a prison officer from Denton, says: “We’re no further forward with Labour than when the Conservatives were in. [Labour are] too centrist.” She suggests there was no difference between Labour and the Conservatives.
“Green felt like a natural decision,” she says. “I saw Hannah Spencer on TV and what she had to say made a lot of sense. She seemed to be more for ordinary people like us who work for a living. I remember Hannah saying something about getting young people back into jobs. And that’s where we need to be heading.”
• Fraser Nelson: Green asked the biggest question in politics
The environment is hardly mentioned as a factor. Several of the Green voters, all of them of Asian heritage, describe Reform as racist. But the vote here is not simply about Muslims trying to stop Reform.
Outside Green Party HQ on Mount Road, Paul Rowlands, 66, is picking up a parcel, making his way slowly down the street with the help of a stick. “I’m disabled. I have no feeling down the right side of my body,” Rowlands, who voted Green, says. “I had a blood clot on the brain, you see. They took away my mobility payments. I can’t get it back. I get PIP allowance [personal independent payments designed to cover costs associated with long-term health issues], but no mobility.
Paul Rowlands
JAMES SPEAKMAN FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
“We’ve been voting Labour as a family for a very long time. It’s not that I don’t like Keir Starmer, or anything like that. I’ve voted Greens because I think they’re more kind and caring towards people like me. That’s all.”
People here have a sense that the Greens believe in something. Labour is right to pay attention.