Keir Starmer defends blocking Andy Burnham from standing in by-election as Zack Polanski boasts it boosted Greens: Live updates and reaction

New Gorton and Denton MP Hannah Spencer said her feelings about what might have happened if Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham had stood in the seat for Labour had also changed throughout the campaign.

She said:

If he had stood I think we would have had a harder fight, but I think we possibly still would have won it.

We’ve heard from so many people that they are so angry at Labour and have been for a very long time, that him standing as a Labour politician would not have helped in his campaign to be elected here and would have really gone against him.

She said she thought selecting Mr Burnham as the candidate would not have been the ‘saving grace’ for Labour some thought it would have been.

Greens leader Zack Polanski told a press conference he ‘punched the air’ when he learned Andy Burnham had not been selected as a candidate in Gorton and Denton.

But he added his opinion on whether Mr Burnham could have won the by-election for Labour had changed over time.

He said:

When Andy Burnham wasn’t selected I punched the air and I thought it’s very probable we can win this. I wasn’t complacent but I knew we could do it.

Having seen the anger out on the streets about the Labour Party, Andy Burnham is still a Labour Party politician and I would say, no matter how popular you are, even if you have some of the right positions, I think people in this country are looking at Labour MPs, or high-profile Labour politicians, and saying ‘where are your red lines, how can you stand by what this Government is doing?’, whether we’re talking about the cost-of-living crisis or whether we’re talking about the genocide in Gaza.

Labour MP Clive Lewis has described the Gorton and Denton by-election defeat as a ‘punch in the face’ for Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership as he suggested working with the Greens in the future.

Speaking to the Press Association, Mr Lewis said a ‘clean break’ was needed, adding: ‘we talk tough but govern timid’.

He said:

This Government has burned its base, alienated its core vote, sidelined its activists and stuck two fingers up to the very people we came into politics to represent – and we’re surprised voters are walking away?

Changing the leader without changing the politics would be a waste of time. The problem isn’t presentation. It’s direction. We promised change and delivered continuity. We talk tough but govern timid. We protect vested interests when we should be taking them on.

Reform is growing because millions feel ignored and taken for granted. If we don’t offer real change, they’ll channel their anger elsewhere, as they have this week in Denton and Gorton.

Stopping Reform now has to be the priority. But Labour can’t do that from a position of arrogance or denial. We will need to work with other progressive parties. That means cooperation. It means democratic reform. It means accepting we do not own the centre-left vote.

by James Tapsfield and Greg Heffer

Floundering Keir Starmer insisted he will ‘fight on’ today after being humiliated by the Greens in a disastrous by-election.

Angela Rayner is among those demanding ‘change’ as critics insisted Sir Keir is personally culpable for the ‘worst possible’ result in Gorton & Denton.

But the PM tried to front up the anger this morning, playing down the meltdown as a ‘disappointing’ setback for a government in ‘mid-term’. He also shrugged off condemnation for blocking Andy Burnham from being the Labour candidate, and dodged on whether he will have to quit.

The Greens had never won a Parliamentary by-election – or a seat in the North – but Hannah Spencer romped home with a 4,400 majority.

Despite flooding the area with ministers and 1,000 activists, Labour did not even have the consolation of second place, with its candidate trailing in behind Reform’s Matt Goodwin. Nigel Farage complained of ‘cheating’ and Muslim ‘sectarianism’ after reports of so-called ‘family voting’ from independent observers – an illegal practice where people are escorted to polling booths.

Sir Keir Starmer has defended the decision to block Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham from standing as Labour’s candidate in Gorton and Denton.

Asked if he was wrong to do that, the Prime Minister said:

We had an excellent candidate in this by-election.

He added:

We were fighting the extremes of the right and the extremes of the left. We are changing lives. That’s what we came in to politics to do – to fight for the people who need better lives, not just identity the grievances, not just tear our communities apart, but provide the solutions and unite the country.

Sir Keir Starmer told broadcasters has issued a response to broadcasters after being asked if he considers resigning in the wake of the by-election defeat:

He said:

It’s a very disappointing result. Incumbent governments quite often get results like that mid-term, but I do understand that voters are frustrated, they’re impatient for change. And I came into politics late in life, as it happens, to fight for change for those people need it.

The people who need an NHS that works for them, to be able to doctors appointment when they need it, to get the money they need in their pockets to pay their bills, and to have decent and better life. And I will keep on fighting for those people as long as I’ve got breath in my body.

Sir Keir Starmer said the by-election defeat was “very disappointing” but insisted he understood voters are “frustrated” and “impatient for change”.

Asked if he had considered resigning, Sir Keir Starmer said he would “keep on fighting” for the people who needed a Labour government.

Ms Spencer also hit out at ‘dog-whistling campaigning’ from other parties ahead of the Gorton and Denton by-election.

She said:

I don’t want to dwell on it for too long, but I have been appalled at some of the divisive, dog-whistling campaigning from other parties. I know in my heart, and everyone knows here, everybody here belongs.

Everybody deserves to have their needs met. Everyone deserves a voice in our democracy.

She said the constituency had ‘rejected hate’ with the election result.

Hannah Spencer, the Greens newest MP after winning the Gorton and Denton by-election says there is no part of the country her party cannot win and predicted a ‘tidal wave’ of new MPS at the next election.

Ms Spencer, 34, defeated Labour and Reform in the hotly contested Greater Manchester seat this morning.

Speaking at a press conference, she said:

It’s the same story up and down the country, and this by-election has shown that there is no longer any such thing as a safe seat, and there is no part of the country where the Green Party cannot win. Something absolutely massive is happening right now.

You’ve seen a Green surge, well now wait because a green tidal wave is coming at the next general election. And as our wonderful leader, Zack Polanski, is very fond of saying, we are not here to be disappointed by Labour. We are here to replace them and i was here to replace Labour in Gorton and Denton, and that’s job done. Tomorrow the real work begins.

We’ve had more than a thousand comments on our live coverage this morning after the Greens won their first by-election in the traditional Labour heartlands of Gorton and Denton.

Let’s see how some of our readers reacted:

The Greens are even worse than the Starmer rabble. They are all a joke and out of touch with reality and do not represent hard-working taxpayers. They care more about giving money away to migrants who shouldn’t even be in the UK.

It’s a victory for religious sectarianism too. This country is entering a very dark period in its history.

The Day Britain proved it has become a basket case.

So, Labour has been burned by the demographic they sought to cherish and appease. Who’d have thought!

Nigel Farage has claimed the vandalism of the Winston Churchill statue in central London by pro-Palestine protesters comes in the wake of an ’emboldened’ and ‘resurgent’ hard left which is surging in UK politics.

Mr Farage claims Reform is the only party that will tackle the hard-left with Starmer ‘on the way out’.

Watch his video here:

Zack Polanski has branded Nigel Farage a ‘sore loser’ after the Reform leader said the Greens win in Gorton and Denton was a ‘victory for cheating’.

Mr Farage made the remarks after official observers raised the alarm about ‘family voting’ – a major breach of electoral law.

Responding to him directly, Mr Polanski told Sky News:

Well, Nigel Farage is a sore loser and he just lost an election badly.

I think more of a substantive point, though: Manchester City Council, who are obviously independent in this, have been really clear that there has been no irregularity.

Police officers were at every single polling station, and there’s no finding that anything was seen or anything untoward happened. So actually, just once again, Reform, spreading misinformation and smears and the press and the media seem to repeat them.