Voters in the Greater Manchester constituency of Denton and Gorton go to the polls on 26 February in a snap by-election caused by the resignation of the sitting Labour MP Andrew Gwynne.
By Greater Manchester Socialist Alternative members
Contradictory opinion polls suggest Labour could hold the seat, lose it to Reform, or lose it to the Greens. All three parties say only they can win!
What is certainly true is that the local Labour establishment and successive Labour and Tory central governments have badly failed the people of Denton and Gorton. Working-class communities across Britain have been ignored by ‘mainstream’ politicians for decades, are now burning with anger and looking for an alternative.
Labour blocks Burnham
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is no radical or socialist, but won huge support for verbally confronting the Tory central government during Covid. By modern Labour standards, Burnham is a popular politician with a knack for telling the public what it wants to hear. These attributes and skills are in short supply among Starmer’s cabinet!
Squealing in fear of a future leadership contest which Starmer would be certain to lose, Labour’s leadership blocked Burnham from standing in the by-election. What would have been an odds-on Labour victory is now, notionally at least, a three horse race.
Into this situation steps Reform, flush with ratty Tory MPs fleeing the sinking Conservative ship and fielding the openly racist Matt Goodwin in the by-election. Reform will seek to appeal to the most alienated white sections of the electorate by whipping up racism and blaming all our problems on small boats.
Labour have selected a local councillor as their candidate and are running on the basis that everyone else is worse – Reform because they’re even more racist than the government and Greens because they allegedly can’t win.
After 18 months of Labour blowing the racist dog whistle for it all it’s worth, and the Greens making major gains at the last general election, trotting out these Blairite tropes merely shows Labour’s contempt for the intelligence of the electorate.
Greens on the rise
The Greens are the big news story, with a surging membership, a left-wing leader, and undoubtedly policies well to the left of the other parties running in the by-election. Support for the Greens is a sign of the times, a massive rejection of Reform and the racist right, and a readiness to support (and in many cases join) a radical left-wing party.
Understandably, some on the left are arguing for the whole left to get behind the Greens, either because it’s the only way to stop Reform or because they are enthused by the Greens’ leftward shift under Zack Polanski’s leadership, or both. However, in discussions in recent weeks in Greater Manchester, a different way forward was possible.
Local trade unionist and Your Party member Tony Wilson had indicated he was willing to stand. Tony is a long-standing workers’ leader, having led innumerable campaigns and battles locally and nationally, and is currently playing a leading role in the strike by Transport for Greater Manchester workers. He also has a long history of anti-war and Palestine solidarity campaigning.
When Tony stepped forward, Socialist Alternative members in Greater Manchester enthusiastically backed his candidacy and argued within Your Party locally and nationally to support it. A real workers’ candidate, backed by an active, determined and well-resourced campaign, could transform the debate, present a real class-based challenge to the snide lies of Reform, and put serious pressure on the Greens to bend left.
Unfortunately, we were not successful. In the minds of many YP activists, the lack of resources on offer from party HQ andĺfears that multiple left candidates would facilitate a win for Reform were decisive. This is understandable but unfortunate, because we now have to hope that the Greens are capable of winning the seat.
So far, the Green campaign is framed in the slogan “make hope normal again”, with their candidate Hannah Spencer promising to “hold the government to account and demand action to push down costs, raise wages and bring desperately needed investment into our community”. Of course, most politicians make these kinds of promises in the vaguest sense.
In an article for the Huffington Post, Hannah went some way beyond this. She explained:, “That’s why my number one priority will always be taking action to cut the cost of living – cheaper bills through public ownership, rent controls, free bus travel for young people. Insulating homes properly… taxing the very wealthiest and bringing real justice to the Palestinians.”
On the one hand, this isn’t going massively further than Andy Burnham’s statement earlier this year. But it is at least a start. However, the Greens have put nothing forward about how any of this will be done – not even a mention of the need to build campaigns by working people to put pressure on the council in relation to housing, for instance.
Before considering any formal endorsement for the Greens, Your Party must demand a strategy of mobilisation to win these demands. Will the Green Party fight sincerely for left policies, or go into reverse gear at the first glimpse of power?
Thus far, there is no sign of this type of struggle where the Greens have had power or office elsewhere. The evident limits of the Greens are one reason why YP was formed and why 60,000 people remain members of it despite the much-promoted Green surge and the crises that have plagued YP’s birth.
There is not currently majority support for endorsing the Greens in Your Party in Greater Manchester, and it would be wrong to give a political blank cheque to a party whose elected representatives in local government are indistinguishable from Labour, and who in parliament cannot find the words to oppose the NATO war machine.
Your Party: prepare for May!
In three months’ time, on 7 May, around 5,000 council seats are up for election across Britain. Labour correctly expects to take an absolute hammering, certain to lose hundreds – probably thousands – of seats. Reform will seek to run riot and take control of significant urban councils, and the Greens are sure to stand as widely as possible and proclaim themselves the only viable left alternative. Their record of voting for cuts in local authorities across the country will be quietly tucked away under the rug.
Your Party was founded nearly a year ago. Unfortunately, since then the leadership has done its level best to hold back the party by endless delays to giving branches the democratic powers, data and money they should have had from day one. Already there are signs that some in the leadership want YP to essentially duck out of the 2026 council elections and focus on the 2027 elections.
This would be another damaging error, handing all the initiative to our political rivals and enemies. No doubt we will be told that by existing and, God forbid, standing in elections, we will ‘split the vote and let Reform in’. But if we don’t get our act together, it will stay like that until we get a Reform government. Unless something changes, that is still the most likely upshot of the 2029 general election.
We have – at most – three years to build a political alternative capable of blocking that Reform victory. We must not let the YP leadership sleepwalk us to defeat with endless prevarication. We need a bold strategy to make YP as prominent as possible on the streets, in the communities and workplaces, right now.
In Greater Manchester as across Britain, YP activists are straining at the leash to get out and do some real campaigning. In Greater Manchester there are already plans to stand in several boroughs across the region, and discussions about going much further. This is the case in many other areas. Socialist Alternative is helping YP prepare to stand widely and provide a class-struggle socialist alternative to the pro-capitalist parties, with policies such as rent controls, free public transport, and no cuts to public services. If you agree, join us!
