2026 Gorton and Denton by-election

A by-election for the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of Gorton and Denton was held on 26 February 2026, following the resignation of Andrew Gwynne on health grounds. Gwynne was sitting as an independent following suspension from the Labour Party for sending offensive WhatsApp messages. Hannah Spencer of the Green Party won the by-election with 40.7% of the vote and a margin of victory of 4,402 votes, becoming the party's fifth MP and first in the North of England. It was the Green Party's first by-election victory and its highest vote share in a by-election, by a margin of 30 percentage points. Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, applied to be the Labour candidate, but was blocked by the party's National Executive Committee (NEC), a decision Angela Rayner later called a mistake. Commentators described his bid as a possible springboard for a leadership challenge to Prime Minister Keir Starmer; Burnham later won the 2026 Makerfield by-election, amid the 2026 leadership crisis. The result was widely considered a significant blow for the Labour Party, being its first election loss in Gorton since the 1931 UK general election and the seventh-largest Labour majority to be overturned at a by-election. Commentators described the result as seismic and historic, showing the rise of newer parties in British politics, and undermining Labour's political strategy.

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