In the end, it wasn’t even close. Hannah Spencer stormed the Gorton and Denton by-election. This is the first parliamentary by-election the Green Party has won. It won’t be the last.

‘Urgh, Labour’

The day before the vote, a group of us from the North East were knocking on doors there. Speaking to voters who’d not yet been contacted – either always out at work, or maybe just back from their hols.

I quickly got to know the “urgh, Labour” face. Men, women, old, young, black, brown, white – whenever the subject of Labour came up they looked like they’d found a hair in their coffee. Not anger, more a bewildered disgust.

Some of it was about the local services. Fly tipping, rubbish. A bit about the poor quality of housing. From the state of the front door I could see some landlords were skimping on maintenance. Some spoke to me about Gaza.

Mostly, though, people raised the cost of living in one form or another. Energy bills. Rents. Food prices. Insecure work. Not a single person said anything remotely transphobic. That seems to be an obsession of online culture warriors. The working people of Gorton and Denton are more worried about their depleted bank accounts.

The future’s Green

Wednesday drive time I did a Times Radio interview on my phone. John Pienaar remarked how upbeat I sounded. I told him what people told me – the Green vote was strong. It wasn’t a scientific sample, but from what I’d seen Hannah Spencer was going to win.

So is anything less than a resounding victory a bad result for you, he asked. Isn’t it remarkable, I said, how this has been framed. This is an ultra-safe Labour seat. Whatever happens, Labour’s last remaining argument has been shredded. You don’t need to vote Labour to stop Reform.

Gorton and Denton was 127th on the Greens’ target list. In other words, if the Greens won by just 1 vote, they’d expect to win 127 seats in a general election. Political analysts Electoral Calculus looked at the demographics and said that, based on this result, we’d see only 33 Labour MPs elected at the next general selection. 10 Tories, 38 Lib Dems, and 254 Reform.

249 Green MPs would be elected, including all three Newcastle seats. I’ve been working on those already. Data from campaigning already shows that Greens will replace Labour in council seats across Newcastle this May. No more will people hold their nose and vote Labour to keep out Tories or Reform. People will vote Green to win.

Green Party positive, not divisive

John Pienaar put it to me that the Greens had run a divisive campaign by raising the issue of Gaza. I said that in a democracy people can and should choose their own voting criteria:

People like you and me, John, read the economic sections of the manifestos. Most people don’t. They see video of hospitals being bombed and civilians being gunned down while queuing for food. They want to see some compassion from their leaders. They look at the way their politicians respond to issues like Gaza and use that as an indicator of their character.

We were out again from 6am Thursday, delivering “get out the vote” reminders. Then door knocking in the rain until well after it was dark. Voters didn’t let the weather deter them. I guess they’re used to it in Manchester.

The establishment parties have been roundly thrashed, and Reform candidate Matt Goodwin blames the electorate, calling them “a coalition of Islamists and woke progressives.” We can expect to see them ramp up the dirty tricks. Not just fake polls, but nasty disinformation. But they’ve already been doing it.

The Green Party said loud and proud, we will tax billionaires. We will take utilities into public ownership. We’ll have a humane asylum system. We’ll introduce rent controls. We will treat drugs like a public health problem. And we will treat everyone with dignity and human rights, and stand against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia.

And it worked. The Great British public heard all the slurs and lies from Labour and Reform, and thought, you know what, I quite like the sound of a country where everyone works together. A tolerant Britain. A fair Britain. And they voted for a northern working class woman in a party led by a gay Jewish man.

Featured image via Barold / the Canary

A Canary journalist spotted Wes Streeting bundling five people into a four-seater Fiat 500 – clearly breaking the law:

The Canary spotted the car in Gorton and Denton on Thursday, 26 February. Streeting pulled the passenger seat forward to allow three other people into the back seats. He then got into the passenger seat. Another person got into the driver’s seat.

Of course, we had to check the registration plate to confirm, but the car is a 2016 Fiat 500 POP. It has 3 doors, and four (small!) seats.

And four seats equals four seatbelts. Which means one passenger was not wearing a seatbelt, and therefore broke the law.

UK law states:

You must wear a seat belt if one is fitted in the seat you’re using – there are only a few exceptions.

You’re also only allowed one person in each seat fitted with a seat belt.

You can be fined up to £500 if you do not wear a seat belt when you’re supposed to.

Wes Streeting also got into that car, knowing the passengers were breaking the law.

Road fatalities

In recent years, there has been a huge increase in the number of road fatalities due to people not wearing seatbelts.

The most recent figures from the Department for Transport show that 40% of back seat passengers killed in car crashes were not wearing their seat belts.

In 2023, 1,766 people died in the UK, and many more received serious, life-changing injuries which could have been prevented by wearing a seat belt.

Amid ever-increasing pressure on the NHS, and with Streeting as the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, there seems to be an ever-so-slight mismatch between messaging and action.

Simply getting into an overfilled car without enough seatbelts shows that Streeting thinks he is above the rules.

Featured image via the Canary

A French League match between Nantes and Le Havre showed a human moment. In the 74th minute, Nantes goalkeeper, Portuguese Anthony Lopes, fell to the ground, clutching his hamstring, in what at first glance appeared to be a routine injury requiring medical attention. Play was halted for several minutes as the medical staff rushed to the veteran goalkeeper.

But behind this pause, another story was being written.

French League shamed

The French League has regulations prohibiting the suspension of matches for religious reasons, unlike some European competitions that allow a short break at sunset to enable fasting players to break their fast.

In England, for example, the Premier League has adopted a mechanism allowing referees to grant a minute of rest at sunset during Ramadan. In France, however, the situation is different.

As Lopez fell to the ground, the Muslim players on the pitch found those precious moments they had been waiting for. They quickly headed to the touchline, ate dates, and drank water, in a quiet scene tinged with gratitude.

There was no official announcement, no special refereeing decision, just a brief window of opportunity created by the goalkeeper.

After the moment passed, Lopez got up. He showed no signs of injury and didn’t ask to be substituted. He returned to his position under the crossbar, as if nothing had happened.

Solidarity beyond words

Such details might not be recorded in goal reports, but they are etched in the players’ memories.

Lopez’s action – whether spontaneous or deliberate – carried a clear message of solidarity: in football, there is more to it than just competition.

The match ended with Nantes winning 2-0, bringing their points tally to 17. But the most important statistic wasn’t in the standings, but in the 74th minute… when the match was paused, and some players quietly broke their fast.

Between law and spirit

This incident highlights an ongoing debate within French football regarding how to handle fasting players during Ramadan, at a time when other competitions are moving towards flexible solutions that respect the legal framework while also acknowledging religious sensitivities.

Amidst this debate, Lopez’s gesture offered a simple example of humanity: a non-Muslim player giving his teammates a moment they needed, without speeches or slogans.

Sometimes, solidarity doesn’t require an official statement; it’s enough for a goalkeeper to fall, and others to rise up and break their fast.

Featured image via the Canary

Analysts have documented over 900 cases of UK institutions and pro-Israel groups targeting supporters of Palestine with different types of repression.

The European Legal Support Center (ELSC) and research group Forensic Architecture have put together an Index of Repression. Upon launching this public database, the ELSC said:

For too long, anti-Palestinian repression has been dismissed as incidental, exceptional, and justified. On 25 February, we confirm what the movement has long known: this repression is multi-sited, institutionalised and systematic, unfolding across varied stages.

This, it insisted, is a “coordinated system” seeking to undermine public criticism of Israel’s settler-colonial crimes and genocide in Gaza. And the Index of Repression has documented:

964 verified incidents of repression targeting Palestine solidarity documented across Britain (January 2019 – August 2025)

Those responsible, the Guardian said, were:

police (220 incidents), educational institutions (192), pro-Israel advocacy groups (141), and journalists and other media actors (141).

‘Strategic targeting to dismantle solidarity’ with people living under Israeli occupation

The UK’s crackdown includes smears, sanctions, and other repercussions for speaking out. And it:

focuses deliberately on sectors fundamental to shaping public discourse and holding public trust: Education; Activism and Protest; Workplace; and Culture.

It is a “strategic targeting across sectors” that:

aims to dismantle solidarity at every stage, from the formation of political consciousness in universities and schools, to its expression in culture, to its organisation in public spaces.

The cancel culture on behalf of a genocidal foreign state has targeted educators and those they teach in particular. As the Guardian summarised:

Students, academics and teachers (336 incidents) appeared most frequently on the index as targets of repression, followed by activists and organisers (229). The report says they are often targeted in different ways, with artists and cultural workers often having events cancelled (71 incidents).

The paper added that techniques included:

smears, disinformation, harassment, doxing (having private or identifying information published online), visa cancellations, financial blacklisting, loss of employment and arrest

Large-scale Western repression in service of Israel’s genocide

The UK has faced significant criticism domestically and internationally for its unlawful proscription of non-violent direct-action group Palestine Action. The government has already spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on its highly controversial ban. But it is still fighting the courts to keep it in place.

The ELSC’s Tara Mariwany clarified that it was “not our role” to discuss or determine whether allegations against targets were true or not, emphasising:

It’s simply our role to document it and to show that it doesn’t matter if you wear a watermelon sticker on your shirt, that might give rise to the allegation of antisemitism…

It’s simply about showing the scale of it and that should give enough of a cause to question the allegation itself and question the smearing itself.

The project is not a standalone piece of work either. Instead, as the ELSC explained:

It builds on Germany’s Index of Repression, which we have launched in May 2025, and is both a continuation of this work and an expansion into a broader transnational effort to document and expose repression across Europe.  The forthcoming Index of Repression for the Netherlands – alongside other country reports – marks the next phase of this sustained, cross-border project.

Featured image via the Canary

(Alamy)

5 min read1 hr

The Prime Minister said Zack Polanski’s party was no longer comprised of “harmless environmentalists” in a letter to all Labour MPs following their defeat in Greater Manchester.

Labour is reeling after finishing third in a constituency it had controlled for over 100 years and where it won with an absolute majority at the 2024 general election.

Green candidate Hannah Spencer won with 40 per cent of the vote, in the clearest sign yet of the threat posed to Labour’s left flank by Polanski’s “eco-populist” left-wing party.

Reform UK candidate, former academic Matt Goodwin, came second.

In a letter to Labour MPs on Friday, seen by PoliticsHome, the PM said: “We’ve seen the true colours of Zack Polanski’s Greens in this campaign. The Greens were able to capitalise on an endorsement from George Galloway to win over enough voters to push them over the line.

“Their willingness to welcome Galloway’s divisive, sectarian politics is a sign that the Greens are not the harmless environmentalists they pretend to be, and their position on legalising all drugs shows how unstable this electoral coalition is. It cannot survive a general election campaign.”

Galloway, a former MP for Labour and the Respect parties, is a controversial figure in British politics, accused of running divisive campaigns in areas with significant Muslim populations.

His Workers Party of Britain decided not to stand a candidate in Gorton and Denton.

In his letter, Starmer said he would continue to “warn of the risk the Greens pose” to the country, including “extreme policies like legalising all drugs and pulling out of NATO”.

He also sought to assure Labour backbenchers that Polanki’s party would not be able to replicate its by-election success on Thursday at a nationwide general election.

“The Greens may have won here, but they simply do not have the resources, the activist base or the local knowledge to replicate this victory across the country. We’ve seen that before.

“We’ve seen it with the Lib Dems, who have often won mid-term by-elections against both the Conservatives and Labour, but never been able to come close to winning nationally. We’ve seen it with George Galloway, who won two mid-term by-elections but held neither of those seats in a general election.”

Some Labour MPs have privately expressed concern that the lettercould further alienate progressive voters who supported the Greens on Thursday, with one calling it “appalling”.

One Labour backbencher complained to PoliticsHome: “That letter is what the Greens will use to raise the money. Slow clap.”

Additional reporting by Zoe Crowther

Here is the letter in full:

Dear Colleagues,

 

The result in Gorton and Denton is deeply disappointing. 

 

Instead of a Labour MP who can be a local champion delivering for Gorton and Denton alongside a Labour Government and a Labour mayor, the people of Gorton and Denton now have a representative who is more interested in dividing people than uniting them. We have to learn lessons from that, and we will.

 

I know this is a tough result for our movement but I still want to thank you for everything you did to support our brilliant candidate Angeliki Stogia. She did a fantastic job and Gorton and Denton deserved to have her as their MP.

 

We’ve seen the true colours of Zack Polanski’s Greens in this campaign. The Greens were able to capitalise on an endorsement from George Galloway to win over enough voters to push them over the line. Their willingness to welcome Galloway’s divisive, sectarian politics is a sign that the Greens are not the harmless environmentalists they pretend to be, and their position on legalising all drugs shows how unstable this electoral coalition is. It cannot survive a general election campaign.

 

It hurts, but this is the kind of result that we have often seen parties of government face. In by-elections people can make their voice heard without risking a change of government. I get it: people are rightly impatient to see the change they voted for.

 

It’s my job to make sure that happens. And I’m working day in, day out to see it through.

 

Over the coming months, people will feel the benefit of the long-term decisions this government is taking. Look at the good economic news we’ve had in the past week: inflation and borrowing coming down, retail sales and business confidence rising, energy bills falling. And look at the policies that are going to make a difference in people’s lives in the coming months: the landmark Employment Rights Act, money off energy bills, the cruel two-child limit scrapped, more free breakfast clubs opening, Pride in Place funding coming through, NHS waiting lists continuing to fall. It will show what we’ve been saying from the outset of this year: the country is turning a corner. These are all Labour policies, putting Labour values into action – policies no other party would or could deliver.

 

The Greens may have won here, but they simply do not have the resources, the activist base or the local knowledge to replicate this victory across the country. We’ve seen that before. We’ve seen it with the Lib Dems, who have often won mid-term by-elections against both the Conservatives and Labour, but never been able to come close to winning nationally. We’ve seen it with George Galloway, who won two mid-term by elections but held neither of those seats in a general election.

 

We will continue to warn of the risk the Greens pose: the risk of extreme policies like legalising all drugs and pulling out of NATO that most voters strongly reject, and the risk of splitting the progressive vote so that Reform come through the middle. 

 

The next election is too important to let that happen. It’s a fight we can win, and we’re going to win it.

 

Best,

Keir