![\"(Left)](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3_byelectionJPG.jpg\")
<\/p>\n“I’m not sure anyone wants any more of your hot air”<\/p>\n
19:49, 16 Feb 2026Updated 19:50, 16 Feb 2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(Left) Green Party’s Hannah Spencer and Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n
The Gorton and Denton by-election is just ten days away. It’s been a tense fight so far in what’s expected to be one of the most high-profile and hotly contested by-elections in recent memory<\/a>.<\/p>\n It has seen Reform report Labour<\/a> to the police for a ‘misleading’ video attacking Salford<\/a> Uni graduate and GB News presenter Matt Goodwin, Labour mock the Greens for their failure to spell \u2018Gorton\u2019 correctly on their campaign posters and making a game of it<\/a>, and Ashton<\/a> MP Angela Rayner claiming Reform ‘can’t even find the Gorton and Denton constituency on a map’.<\/a><\/p>\n But the battle has just become even sourer after a savage response from Hannah Spencer.<\/p>\n Click here to prioritise Manchester news in Google from the MEN<\/a><\/p>\n The candidate for the Green Party hit back at Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin after he challenged her to a one-on-one debate, adding that the election is a ‘two horse race’ between the parties. The candidate had previously appeared alongside Spencer at the BBC<\/a> Hustings on Monday (February 16) and last week at the hustings hosted by the Manchester Evening News.<\/a><\/p>\n Posting a response on X, Goodwin challenged Spencer to a one-on-one debate, adding that there was ‘limited room for a serious discussion about the challenges facing the people of Gorton and Denton’.<\/p>\n Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n “As you have said yourself, this by-election is now a two-horse raise between Reform and the Green Party, which is why today I am inviting you to a one-on-one debate,” the Reform UK candidate penned.<\/p>\n “I’ve noticed there’s been a great deal of misinformation about this campaign and the candidates. There has not been sufficient scrutiny of our respective platforms.”<\/p>\n He added: “You have talked much about your respect for the local people. I am sure that you will agree with me that they deserve the change to scrutinise our policies in depth. And they deserve the chance to see us scrutinise one another. On the doorstep, we are seeing all the residents rejecting Labour. Rejecting Keir Starmer. The people want change.<\/p>\n “Clearly we hold very different views on how to achieve that. Let’s discuss this publicly.”<\/p>\n But it seemed the Green Party candidate had other ideas. She issued a short response to Matt’s request, quipping that it’s ‘not the best of three’ and would focus her time ‘knocking on doors’ and speaking to residents of the constituency.<\/p>\n Hannah Spencer said: “Hi Matt, we literally just debated in the BBC studio and last week at the Manchester Evening News hustings. It’s not a game of the best of three.<\/p>\n “It sounds like you’re concerned you didn’t come across very well and want another go. I’m not sure anyone wants any more of your hot air and I’m focusing my time now on knocking on doors to talk about what really matters to the people of Gorton<\/a> and Denton<\/a>.”<\/p>\n The 11 candidates standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election were previously revealed. It also includes Angeliki Stogia for Labour, Charlotte Anne Cadden for the Conservatives<\/a> and Jackie Pearcey for the Liberal Democrats<\/a>. Voters will head to the polls on February 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“I’m not sure anyone wants any more of your hot air” 19:49, 16 Feb 2026Updated 19:50, 16 Feb…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[45478,59,12763,157426,57,58,48375,50,70,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-429757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-denton-and-audenshaw","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-gorton","11":"tag-gorton-and-denton-by-election-2026","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-greatbritain","14":"tag-green-party","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-reform-uk","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}