Green leader urges 'hope over hate' for by-election

Zack Polanski has urged the constituents of Gorton and Denton to choose "hope" over "hate" in a by-election which he says is a race between the Greens and Reform.

The party leader joined candidate Hannah Spencer, a councillor and plumber, on the campaign trail in Denton on Saturday where he said people were feeling "excited" at the prospect of getting the area's first Green MP.

He told supporters: "We know this election is between the Reform party and the Green Party.

"It's between hate and hope and I think we know who is going to win."

He responded to a letter written to him by deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell in which she said she feared he was being "played" by Reform and would allow them to win by splitting the Labour vote.

Polanski said her claims were "absolutely absurd".

He said: "The Green Party are the only party who can stop Reform and to have the Labour Party trying to wade in, trying to make themselves relevant, demonstrates what a difficult week they've had and what a difficult year they've had since gaining power."

At the 2024 general election, Labour won the seat with more than half of the vote - 18,555. Reform UK came second on 5,142 votes, narrowly beating the Greens with 4,810.

The by-election, which will take place on 26 February, was triggered by the resignation on health grounds of former Labour MP Andrew Gwynne.

Polanski, who is from Salford, dismissed Powell's suggestion that he would have stood in the seat himself if he thought the party could win.

He said: "I'm from Manchester sure, but I've lived in London for 20 years.

"In some ways, it would be tempting to move back to Manchester and run for a seat but I have more respect for Mancunians than that.

"I have more respect for democracy than that."

Spencer, who was joined by her four greyhounds for the campaign event in Granada Park, told supporters her life had changed "dramatically" since she had been announced as the party's by-election candidate.

As well as being recognised in the supermarket, she had received "quite a lot of abuse", she said.

She added: "One of the things that's surprised me most is how many lies have been spreading about me, whether that's because I'm apparently married to the chief executive of AstraZeneca - spoiler alert, I'm not - or the fact I'm apparently not a plumber.

"That one seems to be spreading absolutely everywhere.

"I think it's really interesting that that's all that they've got to go up against us."

She vowed to make a difference if she won the seat and said: "I can promise you when I strut down those corridors in Parliament as the only woman plumber to ever do that I will shake things up.

"I will do that because it is time for change."

Spencer is up against GB news presenter Matt Goodwin for Reform and Manchester city councillor Angeliki Stogia for Labour.

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

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