Green Party floods Gorton & Denton with hundreds of volunteers

In the run-up to the Gorton & Denton by-election campaign, Green Party volunteers have taken to the streets. And unlike Reform MP Lee Anderson, they seem to have taken their photo in the correct constituency:

Green Party — ‘Hope will win’

The Green Party candidate in Gorton & Denton is Hannah Spencer. Writing in Huffington Post, Spencer gave an idea of who she is and what she’s hoping to achieve:

I’m not your average politician. I didn’t go to university to study politics. I’m a plumber in Manchester – and through that job I spend my days in kitchens, bathrooms and front rooms. And from what I see, people are struggling.

She added:

Of course not everyone in Britain is struggling. In fact, the 50 richest families hold more wealth than 50% of the population. That kind of wealth is unimaginable to the people of Gorton and Denton, and despite widespread calls for a proper wealth tax, it’s a wealth that this government seems happy to watch accumulate.

Earlier in the day, Novara’s Aaron Bastani reported on the response to Green activists in the area:

Owen Jones commented too, noting that the Greens need to expand their operation like never before:

Going off the picture the Green Party posted, they’ve certainly got a decent number of door knockers; as the weeks go on, we’ll see if it’s enough.

Labour

Since Bastani posted, Labour have actually announced their candidate. We were going to cover that separately, but there doesn’t seem to be much to say about her:

She certainly doesn’t sound like the worst Labour politician, but it’s a pretty low bar isn’t it, really?

Good luck to her, anyway; she’ll certainly need it, because the locals are furious that Starmer stitched up Andy Burnham

Speaking of that, here’s what Spencer said:

Labour is riven with U-turns, stitch-ups and lies. They do over their own mayor – and they’ll do over the rest of us too.

And here’s what she said about Reform:

Reform is a party that drools over a dangerous US president, that is backed by big finance. In Matt Goodwin they’ve picked an extreme candidate, who has made his disdain for Muslims widely known, and who sees this place as just as a rung on the radical right career ladder.

And on her plans for the campaign:

I’ll be going door to door – with hundreds of fellow Mancunians – being very clear that there’s only one party that can be trusted on the cost of living, on taxing the very wealthiest and on bringing real justice to the Palestinians after years of British support for a genocidal Israeli regime.

It’s good to see a Green candidate talking about this issue without the party shitting itself.

The Canary’s own Maddison Wheeldon stood as a Green candidate in 2024 only for the party to abandon her when the gutter press accused her of antisemitism for opposing Israel’s genocide. It seems the party has grown a backbone since then, and as long as that holds, they’re the best option in this by-election for voters who want a genuine alternative to failed privatisation and forever wars.

Featured image via Twitter