She came ahead of second-place Reform UK candidate Matthew Goodwin, with Labour’s Angeliki Stogia in third.
The by-election received national attention, especially after Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham was blocked from standing as a candidate by Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC).
The win was monumental for the Green Party, which now has the highest number of seats it has ever had in the Commons.
However, Ms Spencer’s journey into politics has been a more unconventional one.
Born in Bolton, she left school at 16 and began training as a plumber around 2008.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Ms Spencer recalled a happy upbringing in “nice schools in Bolton” until “everyone starting to get their head down and thinking about mocks”.
Reflecting on opting for vocational training, she said it allowed her to “reach her potential”.
She completed a National Vocational Qualification at Bolton College and went on to work on jobs including installing heat pumps.
Determined to build her skills, she undertook an apprenticeship to qualify as a gas engineer and established her own firm, Hannah’s Household Plumbing.
Since 2010, The Sutton Trust, the UK’s leading social mobility charity, has been investigating the educational backgrounds of Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons.
Ninety per cent of MPs in the 2024 Parliament attended university to study for an undergraduate qualification, with 55 per cent going to a Russell Group university and 20 per cent having attended Oxbridge.
According to the Trust, these figures differ substantially from the population as a whole, with 19 per cent attending university in 2024.
In the Education Census 2021 (released in 2023), apprenticeships were the highest qualification for 6.2 per cent of people in Bolton.
22.6 per cent (52,451) of “usual residents” aged 16 years and over said they had no qualifications, higher than the proportion seen nationally at the time.
However, Ms Spencer hasn’t let not going to university stop her from breaking the glass ceiling in the political world.
Andy Burnham at the new NESTA training centre (Image: NQ)
Mr Burnham has also recently highlighted the benefits and importance of apprenticeships and vocational training.
He discussed this on Monday, March 23, at a new Bolton training academy supporting children and young people without access to conventional educational pathways.
As of the end of 2025, nearly one million young people aged 16 to 24 in the UK were not in education, employment or training.
When asked by The Bolton News what more can be done about this in Bolton, Mr Burnham said: “Navigators [the training academy] is still growing, but there is more that I need to do.
“One thing I am doing is working on getting a 45-day work placement in Bolton for every young person who wants one.
“What we’ve found is when they are of that length and high quality, they work for the young person and the employer as well.”
He added: “It’s a plan that we’re working on towards the end of this decade; unfortunately, it can’t be done overnight.
“I want to get very soon to a position where there is a guaranteed offer for every young person in Greater Manchester of a placement once they turn 16.”
The government has now introduced V Levels, which offer new qualifications, equivalent to an A level.
V Levels are designed around real jobs and the skills employers actually need.
The Department for Education said that “too many young people have been held back by a system that didn’t value every route to success”.
It is hoped the V Levels will help to cut the number of young people not in education, employment or training and drive economic growth.
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