Labour Battles Reform and Greens in Once-Safe Manchester Seat

Residents of suburban Manchester head to the polling booths on Thursday to vote in a parliamentary election that threatens to lay bare the danger posed to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party from both the political right and left.

Labour won in Gorton and Denton by a comfortable 37 percentage points in the general election just 19 months ago. It’s a mark of how far Starmer and Labour have fallen in public esteem that bookmakers and polls in the run-up to Thursday’s by-election suggest they’re in a tight battle with Nigel Farage’s populist right-wing Reform UK party and Zack Polanski’s Greens to retain the seat.