British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to fight political ‘extremes’ on the right and left yesterday after his Labour Party suffered a humiliating election defeat to the left-wing Green Party in an area it had dominated for almost a century.
In a result that underscored the breakdown of Britain’s two-party politics, the loss of a safe Labour seat in England’s northwestern region of Greater Manchester piles pressure on Starmer after weeks of turmoil and calls for him to resign.
The Green Party’s Hannah Spencer won the contest for the seat of Gorton and Denton, with Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party coming second, and Labour in third.
Starmer described the result as “very disappointing”, arguing that while governing parties were often punished at such elections, he understood voter anger.
“I will ... fight against the extremes in politics on the right and the left,” he told reporters, promising to work “as long as I’ve got breath in my body” to deliver the change he promised when he won a landslide national election in 2024.
But his words will do little to calm some in his party, who criticised an election strategy that focused on the threat from Reform, rather than targeting the Greens.
Spencer told a news conference the party would go from strength to strength before the next national election, which must take place by mid-August 2029, and Green leader Zack Polanski said he wanted to secure at least 30 seats, possibly up to 50, in Britain’s 650-seat parliament.
John Curtice, Britain’s most respected pollster, called the result a “seismic moment”, which means the “future of British politics looks more uncertain than at any stage” since the end of the Second World War, uncertainty reflected across much of the West.
Starmer had staked his personal authority on Labour winning the seat by blocking one of his rivals, the popular Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, from standing, and by visiting the constituency earlier this week.
The defeat comes after Starmer faced the most dangerous moment of his premiership this month when some legislators said he should resign over his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, despite his links to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In 2024, Labour won just over half the vote in the area. Yesterday, the Green Party won 40.7 per cent of the vote. Reform won 28.7pc and Labour received 25.4pc.
Labour legislators say Starmer is unlikely to face an immediate threat to his position, but some questioned his strategy.
“In an election we tried to make into one of unity versus division, the electorate chose division – just not the division we were campaigning most against,” said one Labour legislator.
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