Starmer says by-election 'a battle of values'

Sir Keir Starmer has said the Labour Party wants to "bring communities together in unity and hope" as he campaigned in Manchester ahead of the Gorton and Denton by-election.

The Prime Minister said the poll on Thursday was a "battle of values" and warned would-be Green supporters they could split the anti-Reform vote.

He criticised the Green Party for, what he called, a "disgusting" drugs policy, and he said "toxic" Reform UK wanted to "tear our communities apart".

He joined the Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia on the campaign trail, and met Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who was blocked from standing in Labour's previously rock-solid constituency.

Starmer said: "This is a battle of values in this by-election - the Labour Party, which wants to bring communities together in unity and hope, or the toxic division of Reform, that wants to tear our communities apart, that wants to break apart everything that we've stood for, for years and years in this country."

After winning the seat with a majority of 13,413 and more than half the vote in 2024, Labour now faces a battle to save it in the face of a double electoral threat from both Nigel Farage's Reform UK and Zack Polanski's Greens.

Starmer warned would-be Green supporters they could split the anti-Reform vote, and allow the party's candidate, GB News presenter Matt Goodwin, to enter parliament.

"In this by-election a vote for the Green Party is, in effect, a vote for Reform," Sir Keir said.

Polanski has previously labelled such claims "absurd".

Sir Keir also took aim at Polanski's support for the legalisation of drugs.

Polanski has said he wanted to "legalise, regulate and control drugs", arguing for a "public health approach by public health professionals".

Hannah Spencer, the Green Party's candidate, has previously said she thought "decriminalising is a conversation that we need to have".

But the Labour leader said: "I have to say, as a father of a boy who's 17-and-a-half, the idea that the Green Party would make the argument that just, in a few months' time, it should be perfectly lawful to sell him heroin and crack cocaine... I find that disgusting."

Sir Keir's decision to visit the Gorton and Denton seat comes after he did not hit the campaign trail in last year's Runcorn and Helsby by-election - where Reform's Sarah Pochin won by six votes.

He said: "We saw in the by-election in Runcorn last year, where Labour lost by just a handful of votes, we got a Reform Member of Parliament.

"We mustn't let that happen again."

Retired police detective Charlotte Cadden is running for the Tories and local campaigner Jackie Pearcey for the Liberal Democrats.

A full list of the candidates and their minute manifestos can be found here.

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