LONDON — Britain’s beleaguered government has spent much of its time in power concerned about the surging far-right. Instead it just received a sucker punch from the progressive left.
The Green Party delivered a stunning blow to Prime Minister Keir Starmer early Friday with a victory in a hotly contested special election in the northern city of Manchester.
The vote in the constituency of Gorton and Denton was seen as a three-way tussle between the Greens, the rising far-right party Reform UK led by Trump ally Nigel Farage, and Starmer’s ruling center-left Labour Party, which has long dominated politics in the area.
In the event it was a comfortable victory for Green candidate Hannah Spencer, 34.
Spencer was a plumber before she entered politics, a hint of the appeal insurgents from both sides of the political spectrum now have in a country where wages are stagnant, public services are ailing, and years of government scandal have eroded trust in institutions.
Starmer’s position has been under intense scrutiny for months, but recent revelations linked to the Epstein scandal left him badly weakened.
Enter the “eco-populist” Greens, who want to radically overhaul Britain’s energy system, tax multimillionaires’ wealth, dismantle its nuclear weapons program and reverse its policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Bear with me, because this is a lot,” the victorious Spencer told the crowd in her northern Mancunian drawl as she processed the gravity of the result. For people “who feel left behind and isolated,” she said, “I see you and I will fight for you.”
She explained that she never wanted to be a politician and apologized to anyone who had booked her plumbing services.
“I am no different to every single person here in this constituency,” she said. “Working hard used to get you something. It got you a house, a nice life, holidays, it got you somewhere. But now, working hard, what does that get you?
This had been billed as a three-way race but in the event it wasn’t that close. Spencer got 14,980 votes, with Reform’s Matthew Goodwin on 10,578 and Labour’s Angeliki Stogia on 9,364.
The result piles more pressure on Starmer, the least popular prime minister since records began, according to some polls. Even longtime supporters are dismayed at what they say is his inability to communicate a coherent message to a stagnant nation.
Labour Deputy Leader Lucy Powell conceded that “on the day the Greens have managed to win that argument that they were best placed to” defeat Reform. But she insisted that “there is no leadership contest” within Labour after weeks of speculation Starmer’s own ministers may try to topple him.
Labour “seemed almost paralyzed in terms of actually presenting a way forward on the important issues,” said Scott Lucas, a politics professor at University College Dublin.
The election also complicates the wider narrative in the United Kingdom and indeed Europe, where nationalist populists backed by the Trump administration have been surging.
The Greens have harnessed widespread anger at rising prices and the cost-of-living, but rather than blame immigrants they have directed their ire against the super-rich.
“The message of giving people a better future economically can resonate; it can cut through the white noise that define so much of our politics,” Lucas said.
The local demographic is largely split between working-class neighborhoods, college students and Muslim residents. Many of the latter two groups feel disillusioned with the direction of the government under Starmer, particularly what they see as an inadequate response to Israel’s assault on Gaza.
In defeat, Goodwin typified his party’s anti-immigration and anti-Islam platform, saying in a statement that “We are losing our country” and “a dangerous Muslim sectarianism has emerged.”
Spencer condemned this approach after she won.
“I won’t accept this victory tonight without calling out politicians and divisive figures who constantly scapegoat and blame our communities for all the problems in society,” she said. “My Muslim friends and neighbors are just like me: human.”
Reform still remains a national force ahead of the next national election scheduled for 2029 and have led every major opinion poll for 10 months.
However their current average polling of 28% would not give them enough power to rule alone, and would likely have to enter into a coalition government.
The clear victory for the Greens cements the left-wing threat to Britain’s traditional ruling parties, too.
Green leader Zack Polanski is considered by many pundits as one political figure who may have the potential to rival Farage’s popular appeal.
“People everywhere will now know that voting Green is the way to defeat Reform,” he said in a victory statement.
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