People power led the Greens to victory

Hannah Spencer's win in Gorton and Denton has transformed the face of British politics.

- Zack Polanski

Across the country this weekend, we're waking up to a changed political landscape after she beat Reform UK and Labour by a hefty margin to become the constituency’s first Green MP. A tradeswoman from Manchester prised open the door to Westminster ~ and that door won't ever shut.

It’s worth remembering just how improbable this result would have seemed just a few months ago. Gorton and Denton was our 127th target - and a “safe” Labour seat, with Keir Starmer’s party winning a majority of almost 13,500 votes.

‘And yet last Thursday, Hannah took on both the billionaire donors and the smears of the political establishment, and won. She beat Labour into third place, and firmly secured a win over Reform with a majority of 4,402 votes.

Predictably, in the aftermath, there have been attempts to undermine that result. Allegations of supposed “family voting” have circulated and been contested by the returning officer. Any credible accusation of wrongdoing must be investigated, and where wrongdoing has occurred, it must be addressed.

Due process matters. But it is wrong to throw around insinuations in order to delegitimise the democratic choice of thousands of local people. I don't think anyone seriously thinks this would have impacted on the result. We won because we earned trust on the doorstep, not because of conspiracy theories pushed by sore losers.