Labour no longer safe after Greens' 'game-changing' by-election win

DEMOGRAPHICS OF NOTTINGHAM 'VERY SIMILAR' TO GORTON AND DENTON, SAYS CITY'S ONLY GREEN PARTY COUNCILLOR

- By JOE LOCKER

Green MP for Gorton and Denton, Hannah Spencer on a walkabout to meet her new constituents following her historic by-election victory on Thursday, Inset, Councillor Shuguftah Quddoos had been in Manchester campaigning with the party

(ANDY KELVIN / PA)

THERE is a “fear of a serious challenge” from the Green Party in Nottingham after its historic win in Gorton and Denton - as the city’s only Green councillor calls the victory a “game-changer’.

Hannah Spencer not only secured her place as the constituency’s MP, she also made history as the Green Party’s first candidate to win a parliamentary by-election.

She won 40.7%, or 14,980 votes, compared to Reform's 28.7%, or 10,578 votes.

Labour - which had not lost an election in the area since 1931 - came in third with 25.4%, or 9,364 votes.

In Nottingham city, the Green Party has one councillor in Shuguftah Quddoos, a former Labour councillor, and Sheriff of Nottingham, who defected in March 2023.

Her defection came in response to “devastating” budget cuts in the city, and a feeling Keir Starmer’s Labour Party no longer stood for her values.

Councillor Quddoos, who represents the Berridge ward, travelled up to Manchester and arrived at midday on the day polls opened on Thursday. She returned to campaign on her home turf of Levenshulme, where she was born, as well as Burnage, where she also lived for a time, in Gorton and Denton.

Later she moved to Nottingham for university at the age of 18.

She described the Green victory as a “game-changer” - and one that could have implications beyond the bounds of Manchester.