{"id":358899,"date":"2026-02-27T10:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/358899\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T10:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:15:07","slug":"embarrassing-byelection-defeat-for-keir-starmer-as-greens-seize-labour-stronghold-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/358899\/","title":{"rendered":"Embarrassing byelection defeat for Keir Starmer as Greens seize Labour stronghold \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK prime minister Keir Starmer<\/a>\u2019s Labour Party<\/a> has suffered an embarrassing election defeat in an area of Greater Manchester \u200bthat it had dominated for almost a century, a loss that underscores the breakdown of Britain\u2019s two-party politics.<\/p>\n

The loss of one of Labour\u2019s safest seats, in the biggest electoral test in almost a year, puts further pressure on Starmer to prove he should keep his \u200bjob following weeks of political turmoil and calls for him to resign.<\/p>\n

The left-wing Green Party\u2019s Hannah Spencer won the contest for the vacant \u2060parliamentary seat of Gorton and Denton, with Nigel Farage\u2019s anti-immigration Reform UK<\/a> party coming second, and Labour pushed \u200cinto \u200cthird \u200bplace.<\/p>\n

The result was \u201cclearly disappointing\u201d, said Labour party chair Anna Turley.<\/p>\n

Starmer had staked his personal authority on Labour winning the seat by blocking one of his rivals, the \u2060popular Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, from standing, and \u200bby visiting the constituency this week when British leaders normally \u200bavoid campaigning in local areas if they risk losing.<\/p>\n

The defeat comes after Starmer faced the most dangerous moment of \u200chis premiership this month when some of \u200bhis lawmakers said he should resign over his decision to appoint Labour veteran Peter Mandelson as ambassador to \u2060Washington, despite his links to the late sex offender \u2060Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n

Labour won just over half the vote in Gorton and Denton at the last general election in 2024. But Starmer\u2019s unpopularity, sluggish economic growth and a series of scandals and policy U-turns contributed to a deep fall in the party\u2019s support.<\/p>\n

The Green Party won 40.7 per cent of the vote in Thursday\u2019s byelection, triggered when a member of parliament resigned for health reasons. The Reform Party came second with 28.7 per cent of the votes and Labour finished third \u200cwith 25.4 per cent.<\/p>\n

Starmer was unlikely to \u2060face an immediate threat to his position if he lost, Labour lawmakers said before the vote.<\/p>\n

But he could be challenged after May elections, they added, when Labour is expected to fare \u200cbadly in local and regional polls, including for the parliaments in Wales and Scotland.<\/p>\n

It was the first time the Green Party, which \u200bsupports leaving Nato and legalising recreational drugs, had won a one-off election for a \u200bseat in parliament or one in the north of England.<\/p>\n

That takes the party\u2019s total number of seats in the House of Commons to five out of 650. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK prime minister Keir Starmer\u2019s Labour Party has suffered an embarrassing election defeat in an area of Greater…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,5446,20568,11,12,15,16,5,20567,20566,7,8,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-358899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-keir-starmer","17":"tag-labour-party-uk","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-nigel-farage","24":"tag-reform-uk","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories","27":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116142075199887211","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}