Gorton and Denton results in full: How Greens recorded historic victory over Labour and Reform
The Green Party stormed to victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection, capturing one of Labour’s safest seats, dealing a major blow to Sir Keir Starmer.
Labor, which held the seat until the constituency’s former MP Andrew Gwynne resigned for health reasons, came third in the vote, second behind Nigel Farage’s Reform.
Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and Green Party councillor, was elected as the party’s first MP from northern England after securing 40.7 per cent of the vote and a majority of 4,402 votes.
Matt Goodwin candidate Reform UK received 28.7 per cent of the vote with 10,578 votes, while Labor trailed behind with 25.4 per cent with 9,364 votes.
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How has the vote share changed compared to 2024?
The Green Party came third in the 2024 general election with 13.2 percent of the vote in Gorton and Denton. Reform England came in second place with 14.1 percent, while Labor won a comfortable victory with more than half the votes (50.8 percent).
Just two years later everything changed. While Labour’s vote share fell by exactly half in the constituency to 25.4 per cent, Reform’s vote share increased by 14.6 points to 28.7 per cent.
However, it was the Greens who won the big victory, more than tripling their vote share to 40.6 percent. This marks a massive 26.4 per cent swing in the polls from Labor to the Greens, a landslide result.
It represents the sixth-largest Labor majority to be overturned in a by-election since the Second World War.
Turnout was very similar to the 2024 election, at 47.6 percent, down just 0.2 percentage points. This rate is still lower than the 2024 average of 59.7 percent (and the lowest figure since 2001).
Who were the biggest losers of the night?
Alongside Labour’s big loss, both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats saw their support in the already limited district fall further.
The Conservatives finished fourth with just 1.9 per cent share and 706 votes, a six-point drop from 2024. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats came fifth with 1.8 per cent and 653 votes (minus two points).
For the UK’s second and third largest parties (in terms of members of parliament), these dire results mean their £500 deposits will not be refunded if they receive less than five per cent of the vote.
