Embarrassing defeat for UK’s Starmer as Greens seize Labour stronghold

MANCHESTER
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour suffered an embarrassing election defeat to the left-wing Green Party on Friday in an area of Manchester it had dominated for almost a century, a result that underscored the breakdown of Britain’s two-party politics. The loss of one of Labour’s safest seats, in the biggest electoral test in almost a year, piles further pressure on Starmer to prove that he should keep his job following weeks of political turmoil and calls for him to resign.
The Green Party’s Hannah Spencer won the contest for the vacant parliamentary seat of Gorton and Denton, with Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party coming second, and Labour pushed into third place.The result was “clearly disappointing”, said Labour Party chair Anna Turley.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 World War Two.
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 this week, when British leaders normally avoid campaigning in local areas if they risk losing.
The defeat comes after Starmer faced the most dangerous moment of his premiership this month when some of his lawmakers said he should resign over his decision to appoint Labour veteran Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, despite his links to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.