Gorton and Denton voters 'buzzing' and 'relieved'

Residents in Gorton and Denton have been reacting to the Green's historic by-election victory, with some saying they were "buzzing" and "relieved" after Hannah Spencer became their MP.

The 34-year-old plumber secured the Green's first ever by-election victory with 14,980 votes, beating runner-up Reform UK and Labour - who previously held the seat – into third place.

Fiona Daniel said she was "beyond buzzing" after deciding to "vote from my heart" for the Green Party after previously supporting Labour.

"I'm a left-wing person and I feel like we've been let down by Labour – they've not done enough - and I feel like Labour have moved to the right," she said.

The 42-year-old said she had concerns that voting Green would be a "wasted vote" but said "all of my friends and people I speak to on the street were saying they were voting Green so I thought they've got a chance here".

After seeing friends suffer from addiction, she said she supported the party's policy on drugs.

"The war on drugs doesn't work - you can easily buy drugs."

One man, who wished to be anonymous, also said he switched from voting Labour to Green at Thursday's election and was "really, really relieved" as his "primary concern was stopping Reform".

"I'm also a bit unhappy with some of things that Labour have done over the past couple of years - the stance on Palestine - and I feel that they've tried to move the party to the right to suit a lot of traditional Labour voters who might be thinking about going to Reform," he said.

He believed the blame for Labour's loss "lies solely at the foot of Keir Starmer" after the party's ruling body blocked Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham's bid to stand as the Labour candidate.

"I know a lot of people in the area - everybody - is a big fan of Andy Burnham and I think if Andy was going for it then I think Labour would have had a really good chance of winning."

Dale Owusu, 63, said he no longer trusted any of the parties after voting "all his life".

He said he was concerned about levels of unemployment, adding: "All the young ones who are now on universal credit, [the government] should be finding them places to go in for apprenticeships or even starting it from school - getting them into work, to get more work-focused.

"Too many people are claiming sickness benefit."

He also said he believed "immigration is getting way out of hand" and parties were not dealing with the issue as they were scared of "causing any reaction".

Fran Slater, 42, said: "I was terrified that Reform would get in mainly because I'm half-Indian myself - my mum's an immigrant - and their rhetoric is scary and horrible.

"I don't know what that would have done to this area."

Joanna Howard, 50, said she had voted Labour previously but "I'm not very pleased with Labour's policies about immigration".

"I think that the fact that they're trying to bring in a 20-year wait to get indefinite leave to remain is really, really harsh."

Local butcher Waqas Khan, 40, said that he wanted to "try out" the Green Party this time.

"Maybe next time we're going to think about Reform," he added.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram, and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.