𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Keir Starmer’s party suffered a “catastrophic” loss in the Gorton and Denton by-election, according to Labour MP Karl Turner. He said: “Having the Greens in Manchester is the worst result we could have expected.” And he’s right that Labour should be terrified of the Greens – a party that can appeal to left-wing voters who feel Sir Keir has let them down. The Greens are even predicting that, based on the by-election vote, they could win 100 seats in a general election.

But it’s not just the Greens who can celebrate today. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK can also be pleased with the result, even though they came second. Gorton and Denton was once a safe Labour seat, where the party won 50.8% of the vote in 2024. Reform were second in tha election, with just 14.1%. But in this week’s by-election, Labour were pushed into third place, behind Reform and the Greens.

Of course, the Green Party came first. But Reform moved up to second place and doubled their share of the vote, to 29%.

It shows that Reform aren’t just winning support from “right wing” voters – people who once backed the Conservatives.

They are also backed by people who used to vote Labour.

And this is a problem that smarter Labour MPs have noticed. There are some former Labour voters that would never support the Tories. They have a hatred of the Conservatives that, in some cases, goes back generations. There are parts of England where people still remember the miners’ strike and could never bring themselves to vote for a party once led by Margaret Thatcher.

But some of these voters could support Reform – and they are.

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And if you look at other elections, Reform have been the big winners over the past year.

In council by-elections since May 2025, Reform have made 70 gains.

Liberal Democrats gained 27 council seats, Conservatives gained ten and Greens gained nine.

Labour have made zero gains.

It would be bad enough for Labour is it faced a challenge from one insurgent party, as it did from the SDP in the 1980s.

But it is under fire from both sides – the Greens on the left and Reform on the right.

Both these parties are taking votes away from Labour.

It’s a nightmare for Sir Keir Starmer with no obvious way out.