THE GREEN PARTY in England and Wales dealt a major blow to prime minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government with a by-election win last night, when former plumber Hannah Spencer topped the poll in the Gorton and Denton area of Greater Manchester.
Following her win, Spencer told her plumbing clients: “I think I might have to cancel the work that you had booked in, because I’m heading to Parliament.
“And when I get there, I will make space for everyone doing jobs like mine, we will finally get a seat at the table.”
The 34-year-old, who has become the Green Party of England and Wales’s fifth MP and first ever by-election winner, trained as a plumber after she left school at the age of 16.
She has recently divided her time between campaigning and doing a full-time plastering course at a college in Stoke.
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Spencer has been leading the Greens at her local council and ran for mayor of Greater Manchester in 2024, so she is not a total stranger to politics, although she said in her victory speech that she did not grow up wanting to be a politician.
The Greens had promoted her as someone who has lived in Manchester all her life and she describes herself as a marathon runner and “housemate to four rescued greyhounds”.
Casting herself as a true representative of the working class during her victory speech, Spencer said:
“We defeated the parties of billionaire donors.”
Her party leader went further, saying: “We have torn the roof off British politics.”
He said the party’s victory showed that there are now no “no-go areas” for the Greens in Britain and that the by-election win showed the public’s dissatisfaction with the Labour Party.
Polls suggest Starmer is now the most unpopular British prime minister since surveys began, while the Conservatives performed so poorly that they will not be able to get their campaign deposit back.
