{"id":446371,"date":"2026-02-26T09:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/446371\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T09:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:12:10","slug":"polls-open-in-gorton-and-denton-byelection-amid-three-way-battle-between-greens-labour-and-reform-byelections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/446371\/","title":{"rendered":"Polls open in Gorton and Denton byelection amid three-way battle between Greens, Labour and Reform | Byelections"},"content":{"rendered":"

The polls have opened in the three-way battle for Gorton and Denton<\/a> in south-east Manchester in one of the most unpredictable byelections in years.<\/p>\n

The Green party leader Zack Polanski said his party was \u201cneck and neck\u201d with Reform UK to overturn Labour\u2019s 13,000-vote majority, and that Labour will need to \u201csearch their conscience\u201d if Reform UK wins.Keir Starmer\u2019s party has targeted left-leaning voters in the Greater Manchester<\/a> seat with claims that only Labour can see off Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform, saying that a vote for the Greens was \u201cin effect, a vote for Reform\u201d.<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s strategy of claiming the Greens cannot win has echoes of the disastrous Caerphilly byelection<\/a> in October, which the party lost to Plaid Cymru despite telling voters repeatedly: \u201cOnly Labour can beat Reform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of polls opening at 7am on Thursday, Polanski accused Labour<\/a> of deliberately splitting the left vote because a Green victory would be \u201cexistential\u201d for Starmer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s looking neck and neck between the Green party<\/a> and Reform,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think Labour are in this race at all \u2013 they\u2019ve known that for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polanski, who chose not to stand in the constituency despite growing up in Manchester<\/a>, said the party\u2019s internal data suggested it was fractionally behind Reform, with Labour \u201cway, way behind\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Labour party know that the Green party are on track to win this election and I think that they\u2019re doing everything they can to try and split the vote,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy biggest fear is a scenario where Reform win by a handful of votes because Labour took a small percentage of the vote but it was just enough to stop the Green party from winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

A split vote on the left allowed Reform to win the Runcorn and Helsby byelection last May by six votes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Labour is defending a 13,413-vote majority in Gorton and Denton where nearly 80% of voters backed a party on the left<\/a> at the 2024 election. The result will be declared at about 4am on Friday.<\/p>\n

Angeliki Stogia, a Labour councillor, was selected as the candidate for Starmer\u2019s party after Andy Burnham was prevented from standing. The academic turned GB News presenter Matt Goodwin<\/a> \u2013 who has faced criticism for his comments on women, Muslims and British citizenship \u2013 is standing for Reform UK. Hannah Spencer<\/a>, a Trafford councillor and plumber by trade, is the Green party candidate.<\/p>\n

Prof Will Jennings, of the University of Southampton, said the contest was too close to call and that in Britain\u2019s new fragmented politics \u201canything can happen\u201d. He said a Labour defeat would be \u201cterminal\u201d for No 10\u2019s strategy to try to appeal to right-leaning voters in a way that alienates its core progressive supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a symbol of the failure of that strategy and the end point for it,\u201d said Jennings. \u201cThe worst-case scenario for Labour is coming third behind Reform and the Greens, not least because of the decision to stop Andy Burnham from standing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Labour victory would \u201cstaunch that sense of inevitability of the end of Starmer\u201d, he added, and potentially mark a turning point for a government eight points behind Reform in the polls and facing a resurgent Green party.<\/p>\n

However, any relief for Starmer would be short-lived as Labour is expected to suffer heavy losses when voters across England, Scotland and Wales go to the polls in the local and devolved elections in 10 weeks.<\/p>\n

On a visit to the constituency on Monday, Starmer described the Greens\u2019 plan to legalise drugs as \u201cdisgusting\u201d and claimed it would turn parks and playgrounds into \u201ccrack dens\u201d.<\/p>\n

Polanski said Starmer\u2019s visit \u201cfelt very much like spoiler behaviour\u201d because it suggested Labour was confident of winning when, he claimed, that was not the case. \u201cI think the Labour party will have to search their conscience if they\u2019ve allowed the Reform party to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polanski accused Labour of sinking to \u201ca new low\u201d with an attack advert on social media showing a green syringe alongside the words: \u201cHeroin, crack cocaine, spice. Green party says YES.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the last desperate gasp of a Keir Starmer Labour government,\u201d the Green party leader said.<\/p>\n

The byelection was triggered by the resignation<\/a> of Andrew Gwynne on health grounds in January. The former MP was under investigation by parliament for offensive messages he sent in a WhatsApp group of local Labour figures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The polls have opened in the three-way battle for Gorton and Denton in south-east Manchester in one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-446371","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446371","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=446371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}