The Green Party has won the Gorton and Denton by-election, taking the seat away from the Labour Party.
Labour, who won the seat with a majority in the 2024 General Election, placed third after the Greens and Reform UK’s candidate, commentator and academic Matt Goodwin.
Green candidate, local plumber Hannah Spencer, received 14,980 votes, just under 41 per cent of all votes cast, with a swing of 26.4 per cent from Labour.
Looking ahead to the elections to Holyrood in May, this may be seen as a further blow to Sarwar’s Scottish Labour Party, which is already falling behind in the polls.
The by-election result is indicative of the threats Labour faces from both the Scottish Greens and Reform Party Scotland, who will both be seeking to gain regional list votes in the Scottish Parliamentary elections.
Anas Sarwar has already sought to distance himself from Keir Starmer, by calling for his resignation earlier this month.
A fourth year history and politics student said: “I’m not too surprised that Labour lost the by-election. I think they’ve been a bit too right wing on immigration and other issues.”
“I’m holding out hope that Labour respond by being more bold on issues like Europe.”
The role of anti-Reform tactical voting in this shock result is also undeniable, complicating things further in Scotland where the Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party (SNP), Scottish Labour, and Scottish Greens all position themselves as the “keep out Reform” option.
Following a realignment of the Scottish Green Party with their sister party in England and Wales, the party could benefit from Polanski’s party’s increasing popularity, further dividing a fragmented Scottish left.
A second year ecological and environmental sciences student was excited by the result, telling The Student: “It was quite an unbelievable result to wake up to, considering their history with by-elections. It’s nice to see some good news every now and then.”
A sociology and politics student said: “I think it’s a good sign for left as a concern was the whole “divided left” thing but people clearly are prepared to unite for change.”
“I think many people are put off [voting] Green because they think that they’ll never get enough votes to get elected and are paranoid that their votes will go to waste but I think the fact she actually won gives people reassurance.”
Image by Ulia Makoveeva for The Student.