The Green party has selected the former mayoral candidate Hannah Spencer to run in the upcoming Gorton and Denton byelection.
Spencer, a Trafford councillor and plumber by trade, has resided in the constituency in the past and was the Green candidate for mayor of Manchester during the 2024 election, where she finished fifth behind Labour’s Andy Burnham, who retained the post, as well as Conservative, independent and Reform candidates.
Her nomination was officially announced on Friday in Longsight, with the decision having been made democratically by local party members in online hustings held the night before. Spencer is understood to have gained a large majority of the vote, beating competition that included Fesl Reza-Khan, who previously stood for the Oldham East and Saddleworth seat in the 2024 general election, finishing sixth, and Sarah Wakefield, a local campaigner and the former general secretary to the Manchester University student union.
Mothin Ali, co-deputy leader of the party and a member of Leeds city council, was also expected to run but is understood to have decided against it, while the party leader, Zack Polanski, who is from Greater Manchester, was also touted to challenge for the constituency, but ruled himself out, instead hoping to vie for a future parliamentary seat in London, where he lives.
Should Spencer win the byelection, she would become the Greens’ fifth sitting MP, and their first ever in the north. At 34, she would also be their youngest ever MP.
With the announcement, the Greens became the second party to declare their candidate for the constituency, after Reform UK announced the conservative commentator and former academic Matt Goodwin as their choice on 27 January. Labour are due to announce their candidate on Saturday, with their much-publicised blocking of Burnham’s candidacy being viewed by many as leaving the Greens and Reform as the two frontrunners.
The seat is one for which the Greens feel they are well placed to challenge, with Polanski framing the contest as a “battle for the soul of our nation”, and telling the Guardian after a rally on Tuesday that “even if it was Andy Burnham who was running, I think we still would have won”.
Polanski officially launched the party’s campaign that night, with guest speakers including the former party leader Natalie Bennett and Your Party member and campaigner Salma Yaqoob. Polanski has downplayed talk of an alliance between the Greens and Your Party.
The Greens have also secured the first endorsement of the campaign, with pressure group the Muslim Vote throwing its support behind the party in protest over the stance the other parties have taken towards the Gaza war. The Greens hope this will help attract Muslim voters – who make up roughly 30% of the constituency’s population – to their cause.
Despite this public show of support, there have been suggestions by some close to the campaign that the endorsement was made on the assumption that either Ali or Reza-Khan, both practising Muslims, would secure the nomination, though these same sources say it is unlikely the endorsement will be withdrawn as a result of Spencer’s win.
The seat became available after the resignation of Andrew Gwynne over ill health.