Nightmare start to Scottish Labour conference after Gorton and Denton by-election humiliation
Labour were pushed down into third place in Gorton and Denton, with the Greens storming to a historic victory.
It is a difficult start to the Labour conference - they have suffered a humiliating defeat in the Gorton and Denton by-election.
The Greens stormed to victory with 40.7 per cent of the vote, putting them 12 points ahead of second-place Reform UK. Hannah Spencer, who up until this morning was a plumber, won 14,980 votes.
Matt Goodwin from Reform UK won 10,578 votes and Labour’s Angeliki Stogia came third with 9,364.
This means Labour halved their vote share here from 50.8 per cent in 2024 to 25.4 per cent last night. This is the 13th biggest ever fall in the party’s support in a by-election.
Labour has not lost in this area since 1931, and the Greens have never won a by-election before, so this result has already secured its place in the history books.
It was even worse for the Conservatives. They lost their deposit after securing just 706 votes, marking the party’s worst ever by-election result.
There are a few things this result shows - Labour is seriously not popular right now, politics is fracturing as the two traditional parties of the UK are no longer calling the shots, and in the words of polling guru Professor Sir John Curtice, British politics is more uncertain than ever.
The result came just hours before Scottish Labour’s conference begins in Paisley Town Hall.
The party in Scotland will be looking to spend the day finalising their campaign strategies and make some policy announcements before the Holyrood election in May.
But perhaps once again Anas Sarwar will be thwarted by conversations around Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Political commentators are partly blaming Labour’s defeat in Gorton and Denton is partly down to the unpopularity of the Prime Minister. Now earlier this month Mr Sarwar cut ties with Sarmer and called for him to resign, but he will remain a dark cloud looming over the Scottish party.
Mr Sarwar is already keen to deflect Scottish voters away from this by-election result. This morning he said the result was “deeply disappointing”, but has no bearing on the Holyrood election.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast, Mr Sarwar said: “This is a clearly disappointing result and demonstrates people everywhere feel angry, frustrated and that the electorate is volatile.
“But we need to be careful not to have an automatic read across to what’s happening in Scotland.
“In Scotland the establishment for the past 20years has been the SNP, which is a different framing for an election here in May.”
He added: “Over the next 10 weeks my sole focus is on changing the occupant of Bute House, changing the First Minister, and electing a new government here in Scotland.
“My job is not to commentate on UK politics, it is to convince people to vote Labour in Scotland.
“I don’t think towns, cities and villages should pay the price of an SNP government because of frustration with a government somewhere else that’s only been in office for two years.”
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