Rayner Says Labour's Gorton And Denton Collapse Must Be "Wake Up Call" For Party
5 min read
Former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has said Labour must "really listen" and "reflect" after the party suffered a seismic defeat to the Greens in the Gorton and Denton by-election.
Posting on X on Friday morning, Rayner said the defeat in Greater Manchester "must be a wake-up call".
Keir Starmer's party is today reeling after suffering a collapse in a seat that it had controlled for over 100 years.
Labour fell to third place in Gorton and Denton after winning the constituency with over 50 per cent of the vote at the 2024 general election. This time around, the party's candidate Angeliki Stogia received around 25 per cent of the vote.
The victor was the Green candidate Hannah Spencer, who won around 40 per cent of the vote, further demonstrating the threat to Labour's left flank posed by Zack Polanski's "eco-populist" party.
Reform UK candidate, former academic Matt Goodwin, came second.
The scale of the Labour defeat will put renewed pressure on the Prime Minister, and could be a sign of things to come when elections are held in Scotland, Wales and in councils across England in May.
Speaking to reporters, the PM said the result was "very disappointing" but sought to play down the significance. "Incumbent governments quite often get results like that mid-term," he said.
He added: "I will keep on fighting for those people for as long as I've got breath in my body."
Rayner, who is seen as the current frontrunner to succeed Starmer, posted: "This result must be a wake-up call. It’s time to really listen — and to reflect.
"Voters want the change that we promised — and they voted for.
"If we want to unrig the system, if we want to make the change we were sent into government to make, we have to be braver. A labour agenda that puts people first. That’s what all of us across our movement need to rededicate ourselves to this morning."
PoliticsHome understands there is frustration among many Labour MPs with what they feel was a by-election campaign too focused on criticising Nigel Farage's Reform and lacking a positive message about why people should support Labour.
"Labour needs to be the party offering hope to progressive voters. Just anti-Reform isn’t enough," said one senior Labour MP.
Several union leaders and Labour left MPs have publicly called on the Starmer government to shift further to the left after losing a significant amount of support to the Greens.
Clive Lewis, Labour MP for Norwich South, told PoliticsHome: "The by-election result is a punch in the face for the Labour Party and for Keir Starmer’s premiership.
"This government has burned its base, alienated its core vote, sidelined its activists and stuck two fingers up to the very people we came into politics to represent. And we’re surprised voters are walking away? Changing the leader without changing the politics would be a waste of time. The problem isn’t presentation. It’s direction."
Cat Eccles, the Labour MP for Stourbridge, added: "Many of us in the Parliamentary Labour Party [PLP] have said for a long time that we need to be more progressive in our approach and take up the space that the Greens are currently occupying.
"I cannot understand the choice to attack the Greens on their drug policies with sensationalism and misinformation. It did the party no favours whatsoever."
Green Party leader Zack Polanski celebrates with victorious Gorton and Denton by-election candidate Hannah Spencer (Alamy)
Steve Wright, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said: "Labour's entire strategy of framing politics as 'it’s us v Reform' is in tatters after its very first electoral test.
“That approach was rooted in a cabinet pursuing a politically rightward agenda and telling voters they only needed to be marginally less bad than the alternative. That has now been exposed as a fundamentally flawed and unserious strategy.”
However, in a sign of the internal debate that could await the party, North Durham MP Luke Akehurst told PoliticsHome: "It's important that we don't grab for answers that swerve sharply to the left or right and further divide our coalition. We need to focus on delivering policies in government that every potential Labour voter will welcome and celebrate.”
The Prime Minister is also facing criticism over the decision taken by him and other senior Labour figures not to let Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham be the party's candidate in Gorton and Denton.
Burnham said he wanted to stand, but was blocked on the basis that it would mean Labour having to fund a Manchester mayoral election campaign.
Reacting to the by-election result, Mainstream, a soft left Labour group with close links to Burnham, said blocking his candidacy "now looks like a catastrophic error".
Mainstream's Interim Council said: "The Gorton and Denton result is an absolute disaster for Labour. Clearly, we now risk no longer being seen as the natural home for progressive voters.
"This loss was avoidable. Angeliki, members and our party staff worked tirelessly, but our leader and sections of the NEC blocked the one candidate who could have won it for us. That decision now looks like a catastrophic error.
"We need an immediate and fundamental reset now."
