Starmer accepts 'voters are impatient for change' as Greens celebrate 'seismic' by-election win
www.bbc.com
Hannah Spencer, a 34-year-old plumber, wins the Gorton and Denton by-election, with Reform coming in second and Labour in third.
  • Mr Poletski@feddit.ukEnglish
    19·
    20 hours ago

    Best possible result.

    Reform have been shown their arse.

    Labour have been slapped around the face.

    We got a real person sat in the HOC.

    What’s not to like?

    • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
      7·
      12 hours ago

      What is reassuring is that the vote was nowhere near as close as the polls were suggesting it would be. Most of the polls were having the result being won by only a couple of hundred votes, but the greens won by thousands and thousands of votes.

      That’s what all the whining is about. They didn’t get anywhere near the votes they were expecting and I’m sure their backers are starting to wonder if there’s really enough appetite in the UK for them to have any chance of winning. Because if they’re not going to win what’s the point in funding them? That and the fact that Goodwin is a sore loser.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
      6·
      12 hours ago

      The conservatives are pulling in monster raving loony party numbers that’s going to be embarrassing.

      • RobotToaster@mander.xyzEnglish
        3·
        7 hours ago

        It’s not shown, but the MRLP contested this, they got 159 votes.

        So the conservatives only received ~4 times the votes of the actual MRLP. I think I’d quit.

    • jabjoe@feddit.ukEnglish
      9·
      19 hours ago

      What’s great about those numbers is Con+Reform is soooo far behind Lab+Lib+Greens.

      The margin the Greens won by is so big that even if was more split with Labour, Reform still wouldn’t have one. Which will horrify Labour as people won’t fear vote splitting as much.

      It’s one small bi-election, but I like what it says about the Overton window.

      • ModCen@feddit.ukEnglish
        2·
        4 hours ago

        What’s great about those numbers is Con+Reform is soooo far behind Lab+Lib+Greens.

        Because of our crappy first-past-the-post system though, the most likely next government (if an election were held soon) would be a Reform government, or maybe a Reform/Conservative government.

        Reform’s support in recent polls has only been around 24% - 30%. So around 70% of British voters don’t support Reform. Nonetheless, because Reform polls better than any other individual party, they could run the next government. Like how Labour in 2024 only got 34% of votes, but this gave them 63% of seats.

        If the anti-Reform vote continues to be split between Labour/Greens/LibDems/SNP (and even Tories, since there will be Tory voters who don’t like Reform) then Farage will be the next prime minister. Surely the best counter to Reform would be a big tent centrist or centre-left party with wide appeal.

        • jabjoe@feddit.ukEnglish
          1·
          6 minutes ago

          I don’t disagree. I think FPTP is immoral and a liability. I’m disappointed in Labour to looking to address it despite their membership overwhelmingly supporting it. They hope to pay on “it is us, or Reform” which is party before country and could backfire and massively damage the country.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
        3·
        12 hours ago

        It’s actually quite reassuring that Labour are third and not second because as you say it indicates that the vote isn’t being split or at least not all that much. I suspect at least some of those Labour votes will have been concerns over splitting the vote and not wanting to do that, so going with the more traditional option. I suspect that subsequent elections (there’s one coming up in my constituency soon) will look at this result and see that it is in fact safe to vote green.

    • tetris11@feddit.ukEnglish
      32·
      1 day ago

      I’d like to once again say “fuck BBC news” for painting Spencer like an idiot and for sucking off Goodwin

        • tetris11@feddit.ukEnglish
          4·
          17 hours ago

          They made disapproving remarks because she was late to some meeting point due to the bad weather, but that’s what they focused on.

          The reform guy, they were more than happy to meet him personally at his HQ

          • Etzello@midwest.socialEnglish
            3·
            10 hours ago

            I hate how unfree the media is these days. They’re owned by huge conglomerates or in the case of the BBC probably some elite class lobbyists or pressure to favour the elite class, that is, reform l, over the greens.

  • greyfrog@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    8·
    22 hours ago

    Great news. I’ll admit, I think Labour are doing a pretty okay job but they are pandering to Reform voters a little too much and I’d like to vote for Greens at the next election.

    I’m pretty sure though that I’ll have to tactically vote to keep Reform out.

    • Daniel Quinn@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      10·
      22 hours ago

      That’s the really encouraging part of all this: Green is looking like the tactical choice now :-)

  • Mrkawfee@feddit.ukEnglish
    483·
    1 day ago

    Excellent news.

    Starmer can fuck off to Tel Aviv with his Epstein buddies.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
        4·
        12 hours ago

        This result actually indicates that it’s not. The Greens won, they beat out reform by so much that even if you add the conservative vote to the reform vote, they still lose. They kicked labor down into third place. That’s not splitting the vote.

      • Daniel Quinn@lemmy.caOPEnglish
        10·
        1 day ago

        I just think it’s hilarious that Labour has for years been leaning on this “the Greens split the vote” line. Now that the shoe’s on the other foot, I’m betting they feel differently.

  • thlibos@thelemmy.clubEnglish
    3·
    19 hours ago

    Serious questions, not snark: Why does it matter who came in 2nd vs 3rd and why is the story being titled “Greens crush Labor” almost everywhere I see it? Is there something transformational about this single MP election?

    • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
      5·
      12 hours ago

      Also on top of the other comment, the other major thing is that this happened in Manchester. A labour stronghold, and a seat that was supposed to be represented by Andy Burnham but then Starmer decided he was a threat so wouldn’t allow him in the party. This result is the first clear evidence that the left are sick of labour and they’re ridiculousness.

      If labour had come in second it would have actually been a bad thing because it would mean that the Greens were split in the left-wing vote, but the fact that they were pushed down into third place indicates that they are not splitting the vote they are replacing it. That’s huge.

      And it’s a win-win for liberal voters because either the greens will replace labour or this vote will give labour the kick up the arse that they need. Either way it demonstrates a desire for far more left left-wing policy than is currently being offered.

    • Daniel Quinn@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      11·
      16 hours ago

      I’d say that it’s for a few reasons:

      1. In this country’s broken electoral system, “tactical” voting is quite common. Until now, Labour has been heavily relying on the idea that they’ll be elected by default: the not-Conservative choice. When Reform ate the Tories’ lunch, they continued to push that they were “the only party that can beat Reform”. This result suggests that this reasoning no longer applies and indicates that Labour’s dominance as an alternative to the right-wing forces in the UK is ending.
      2. By pushing the traditional parties into 3rd, 4th, and 5th place, this election may mark the end of these guys in favour of the new challenger parties that’re both advocating for more direct action to combat the problems we have.
      3. Reform took 2nd, consuming the Tory vote almost entirely indicating that they’re the force to beat. This makes the revelations of #1 all the more relevant for those of us who think that Reform are dangerous fanatics.
      4. The Greens are unabashedly socialists and this result indicates that their position is resonating with voters far more than Labour’s “Tory light” platform. When the “labour” party gets spanked by a party that’s advocating for wealth taxes, that’s a Big Deal™.
  • ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.comEnglish
    163·
    1 day ago

    Beautiful news.

    Labour said they were the only ones who could defeat Reform. Turns out they lied yet again and it was they who should have stood down their candidate.

  • ikt@aussie.zonebanned_from_community_badgeEnglish
    337·
    1 day ago

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFhCtt3t7eg

    She told The Times: “Gorton and Denton is a beautifully diverse constituency, with thousands of residents who speak languages other than English.

    I was like why would she do this? This is very unusual

    The Manchester wards are on average 42% white and 40% Muslim, with 42% of the population either a university graduate or a current university student

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorton_and_Denton

    ooof

    Read this on the other site, very concerning

    Polanski’s economic policies took 2 minutes of gentle interview pressure during his media love bombing first week in the job, and even under such a light touch he ended up responding that if he crashed the markets (which he 100% would, within hours) “well the markets are a tool of capitalism so maybe they deserve to go.”

    The Greens will lie that they have costed plans and that it won’t harm the country until oushed to a point they cant defend anymore, at which point they snap to “well maybe we need to break everything and anyone on more than minimum wage deserves to suffer the cosequences of our Marxist LARP”

    They fundamentally hate our country. They want to disarm us in the face of Russian war in Europe, they want to bankrupt us into a rotten commune of perpetual poverty (so long as it’s equally distributed poverty) and strip away all our national culture. They’ve made clear they believe in unlimited, open doors immigration and only paused that policy because it makes them completely unelectable.

    They’ve consistently tied themselves to the division over Gaza, bolstered radical islamic sub-factions in British politics, and antisemetic groups. Running an election ad for this by-election in entirely urdu, overlaid with images of bombed Gaza and Starmer’s face? Unbelievable breach of standards.

    These people have shown who they are just as much as the sleezebag, corrupt false-patriots in Reform, and I like what I am seeing no more. I am ashamed of my own generation for supporting them to this degree. The social media age has made our politics more stupid, and more unthinkably divided than ever before.

    Looks like a proper shitshow in UK politics at the moment, then again has been this way for well over a decade now

    • Daniel Quinn@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      23·
      1 day ago

      You posted a YouTube video from some rando account suggesting that it was posted by the newly-elected MP, and then copy/pasted some other rando’s lie-ridden opinion. Everything you’ve shared here is at best irrelevant, and at worst misinformation.

      I get that you’re sad that Reform lost, but they’re the wrong path for this country. Maybe one day you’ll understand that. The Greens ran on a platform of hope and community over division and fear and I’m absolutely thrilled that they beat Reform so bad. It renews my faith in humanity that we can make good choices in the face of divisive, hateful demagogues and that’s just awesome.