By Mukesh 
It was a bad night for U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Labour Party after the Green Party won the Greater Manchester parliamentary seat of Gorton and Denton on Friday (February 27, 2026) . The nativist far-right party Reform U.K. came in second and Labour in the third place in an election that could further erode Mr. Starmer’s ability to stay in position until the next general election.
“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,” said 36-year-old plumber Hannah Spencer, who won the bypoll with around 40.7% of the vote.
“I think this election will transform the face of British politics,” said Greens Chief Zack Polanski, during a joint press conference with Ms. Spencer in Manchester.
“We have torn the roof of British politics, and that’s because people now recognise there is an alternative,” Mr. Polanski said, adding that Labour’s “stranglehold” was over as people realised there was an alternative.
Labour won 25.4% of the vote, behind Reform U.K.’s 28.7%. The Conservatives got a mere 1.9% of the vote and the Liberal Democrats 1.8%.
The results meant that Labour’s vote share had halved relative to its 2024 general election performance in the constituency — having lost voters to Reform on the right and more significantly to the Greens on the left.
There were divisions with Labour on the choice for the by-election with a faction preferring the charismatic Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham over councillor Angeliki Stogia.
Earlier this month, Mr. Starmer and Labour’s governing body found themselves at the centre of criticism for denying Mr. Burnham permission to run, with some speculating that the prime minister was blocking a path to Westminster for Mr. Burnham in order to fend off a potential leadership challenge in the future.
“…When Andy Burnham wasn’t selected, I punched the air and I thought it’s very probable we can win this,” Mr. Polanski said.
Modi, Netanyahu, Trump references in Greens’ campaign
In addition to every day bread-and-butter issues facing Britons featuring the campaign, there were accusations of sectarianism in the campaign. The Greens were criticised for distributing material trying to appeal to Muslim voters, including a video showing Mr. Starmer with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.K. Deputy PM David Lammy with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There was another clip depicting Reform leader Nigel Farage and U.S. President Donald Trump.
One particular image with Mr. Modi and Mr. Netanyahu said in Bengali, “But political leaders are not working for us.” It also said bills and rents were going up.
Some campaign leaflets in Urdu asked voters to “punish” Labour for its position on Gaza. Muslims have traditionally aligned with the Labour Party.
“I think people are allowed to communicate with different communities…about those things those communities care about,” Mr. Polanski said on Friday (February 27, 2026) in an interview with the BBC. Mr. Polanski , who is Jewish, said it was wrong to assume that only Muslims cared about the genocide in Gaza.
Starmer warns of extremes
Mr. Starmer called the result “very disappointing”. While he acknowledged voters’ frustration, he said incumbent governments face such results during their term. The PM said he would fight against extremes in politics both on the right and left.
In a letter to MPs on Friday (February 27, 2026), Mr. Starmer said Labour would sound the alarm on Green policies like making all drugs legal and withdrawing from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military alliance and the risk of splitting the progressive votes and clearing a path for Reform.