{"id":447555,"date":"2026-02-27T00:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T00:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/447555\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T00:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T00:14:10","slug":"gorton-and-denton-by-election-votes-being-counted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/447555\/","title":{"rendered":"Gorton and Denton by-election: Votes being counted"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Analysis\"Plenty think this by-election has been a tight three-way tusslepublished at 22:00 GMT 26 February<\/p>\n

22:00 GMT 26 February<\/p>\n

\"\"Chris Mason
Political editor, reporting from Manchester<\/p>\n

The drama that has swirled around this by-election began months before we even knew when or where it would happen.<\/p>\n

The question of when \u2013 and how \u2013 the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham would try to return to Westminster has never been far from political conversation since at least last summer.<\/p>\n

A by-election in the north-west of England was seen as the ideal opening for him \u2013 only for the prime minister to lean on the bureaucratic strictures of the Labour Party to squash Burnham\u2019s ambition of running for Labour in Gorton and Denton.<\/p>\n

This is the second Westminster by-election since the general election.<\/p>\n

Reform won the first one, in Runcorn and Helsby in Cheshire last May, beating Labour by a whisker.<\/p>\n

That was the 10th consecutive Westminster by-election where a different party took the seat from the one who had held it until then.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s another case study in the flux and unpredictability in our politics right now.<\/p>\n

Of course, as with any by-election, they don\u2019t change the arithmetic much at Westminster \u2013 each are just one seat out of 650.<\/p>\n

But they do change the mood and the political weather.<\/p>\n

And whatever the result in Gorton and Denton, this will be a newsy by-election. Plenty in the various camps think it could be a very tight three-way tussle between Labour, Reform and the Green Party.<\/p>\n

If Labour manage to win, even if only by a smidgen, it will be a huge psychological boost for Sir Keir Starmer, after a particularly rough start to 2026 for him. He would be able to point to his party\u2019s ability to see off Reform and the Greens, and win in Greater Manchester without the man called the “King of the North”, Andy Burnham, as their candidate.<\/p>\n

If Reform UK win, they would use the result to underline their ongoing political momentum. Equally, a loss would point to the limitations of that momentum, albeit in a seat miles down their target list.<\/p>\n

You may remember they fell short in the by-election for the seat of Caerphilly in the Welsh Parliament last autumn, when Plaid Cymru managed to persuade the vast majority of voters who didn\u2019t want Reform to back them. If the anti-Reform vote splits more evenly in tonight\u2019s contest, it could allow them to nip through the middle to victory.<\/p>\n

The most newsworthy result would be a win for the Green Party of England and Wales. It would be their first ever victory in a parliamentary by-election if they took the seat. Unlike the others they may still afford themselves some smiles if they lose, given they have clearly been competitive in this contest.<\/p>\n

And if Labour fail to win, it\u2019ll be awkward for them if Reform are the victors – and arguably doubly awkward if it is the Greens \u2013 as it\u2019ll illustrate the bind they are caught in between two insurgencies, one to their Right and one to their Left.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see how things unfold in the coming hours \u2013 the night is young.<\/p>\n

\"GreaterImage source, EPAImage caption, <\/p>\n

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham tried to be Labour’s candidate in the by-election – but was blocked by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plenty think this by-election has been a tight three-way tusslepublished at 22:00 GMT 26 February 22:00 GMT 26…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447556,"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-447555","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\/447555","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=447555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}