Gorton & Denton by-election thread

[fromorbit]

This dramatic byelection to be held on Thursday 26 February 2026 is looking likely to have a confrontation over sex and gender with the Conservative's just announced candidate Charlotte Cadden being a trustee for Sex Matters. Another factor is with a large Muslim population in the area the group Muslim Vote has endorsed the Green candidate despite one of their aims to be remove teaching about LGBT issues from schools when religious parents object. Obviously in conflict with Green policy.

Candidates

• Angeliki Stogia will be the Labour candidate in this year's election. Ms Stogia moved to the UK from Greece in the 1990s and has served as a councillor in Whalley Range since 2004.
• Reform UK have selected GB News presenter Matt Goodwin as their candidate. He studied at the University of Salford and went on to have a career as a commentator and academic.
• The Liberal Democrats have selected local campaigner Jackie Pearcey as their candidate. She lives in the constituency and previously won 2,600 votes at the 2017 elections.
• The Green Party have put forward Hannah Spencer to stand for them at the by-election. She is a plumber by trade she is from Bolton and has lived in Greater Manchester all her life, and is based in Hale where she is a councilor. She doesn't believe biology is important in deciding gender.
• The Conservative Party have chosen former detective chief inspector Charlotte Cadden as their candidate. She served for 30 years in GMP and London's Met.
• The Re-join EU Party have announced that Joseph O'Meachair will be their candidate. He is a member of the party's executive committee and lives in the North West.

Sebastian Moore (Social Democratic Party)
The Social Democratic Party announced on Friday 30 January that the current SDP North West Chair Sebastian Moore will be running as their candidate in the by-election.

Nicholas Brendan Buckley Advance UK

He is a British charity worker and political figure who previously represented Reform UK.

Dan Clarke is the Libertarian Party candidate

Sir Oink A-Lot
Sir Oink A-Lot is The Official Monster Raving Loony Party candidate

https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/elections/parl.gorton-and-denton.by.2026-02-26/gorton-and-denton/

The just announced Conservative candidate has serious form:
Former detective chief inspector Charlotte Cadden is a lesbian served for 30 years as a Police Officer, both for Greater Manchester Police and the Metropolitan Police - Charlotte is a trustee of the charity Sex Matters, a member of the LGB Alliance Business Forum. She coordinates the Women’s Rights Network in Greater Manchester, In 2023, she set up the national Police SEEN.

Galloway's Worker's Party have now decided not to stand. They may have attracted a bunch of Muslim votes which will now go elsewhere.

Any hustings are going to be rather interesting.

Yes, it's one of those policies that I am not completely fixed on. If it reduces harm it's good. If it doesn't reduce harm it's bad. If they did try to do it you'd want it to be done really carefully having looke at other places that tried it and what did/didn't work. I assume for one thing having the support services in place really matters (Care in the Community was also a good idea.on paper compared to institutional care but because it wasn't funded properly it caused problems).
And if it didn't work you would expect a U-turn. I never understand people who make that sort of issue a key part of their political identity IYSWIM or a test of political loyalty. It seems to be more a pragmatic issue than an ideological one.

But when you look at how policing the drugs trade works now (it doesn't) I can understand the need to find alternatives.

Campaigning to the max

‘A pollster’s nightmare’: stakes are high in three-way fight for Gorton and Denton

Spencer, who appeared in the Guardian 13 years ago as one of the best-dressed at Glastonbury, has had to get used to the overnight attention. Social media trolls call her a “fake plumber” and erroneously claim she is married to an ultra-wealthy financier. “I wish,” she laughed. “I can’t even get a text back.”

She had to be chaperoned by a security guard this week after a “very, very angry” man shouted “fake plumber” abuse into the party’s Denton campaign centre. “I’m not allowed anywhere by myself now,” she said. “It’s surreal.”

...
Lucy Powell, Labour’s deputy leader and the MP for neighbouring Manchester Central, said it was “lazy” to suggest that the pro-Palestinian Workers party vote would simply switch to the Greens.
Anger over Gaza was “not as vociferous” against Labour as it was in 2024, she said. “I went to a mosque the other day [and] I was treated like a Hollywood star. People would have just turned to turn their backs to me two years ago,” she said.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/08/gorton-denton-byelections-battle-labour-green-reform

The remarkable rise of Hannah Spencer: The plumber battling to become an MP and a plasterer at the same time
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/remarkable-rise-hannah-spencer-plumber-33366397

Interesting article like Reform the Greens are putting dodgy stuff on their leaflets. Though the evidence that the Greens hate their own candidate is thin. Telegraph spin there.

Knives out for Green by-election candidate ... from her own side
Leaked WhatsApp messages expose activists’ questions over Hannah Spencer and doubts about ‘party propaganda’

The party has delivered leaflets in the constituency claiming it is in second place behind Reform, using seat projections based on national polling and bookmaker odds.

But in the messages, campaigners complained that voters do not believe the leaflets and that residents are “desperate for data on who is the safer tactical vote against Reform”.

And one activist voiced concern about “party propaganda”.

The leaflets circulated selectively quote Prof Robert Ford, a political academic, to give the impression he supports the party’s chances at winning the seat.

He has since said the quotes are “misleading and out of context” and complained he was not consulted about the party using them. The party has apologised to him privately.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/4055e956624a4660

We’ve had the Greens, Labour and Reform round so far. The Reform encounter was just bizarre. Two women of colour talking about how Matt will stop the boats and protect women and girls … we asked how and who from? No answers. The Greens have pissed people off locally with their electoral leaflet claiming to be the only party to be able to defeat Reform and backing it up with made up poll numbers. Project Fear. I did ask the apparently 12 year old Green activist about women’s rights but he didn’t seem to understand the question and I thought he might cry. Reform are promising the earth and ramping up the anti Muslim rhetoric. It feels dangerous and it’s hugely depressing.

I feel for constituents if they see its a choice between two mad parties. The devil and the pale blue sea.

And that tends ro make for low turnout, which makes for unpredictable results.

The Devil, the Deep Blue sea or Sir Oink A Lot.

What a choice!

I had forgotten that Denton used to be the centre of Britain's hatmaking industry. Lots of post-industrial towns have a fascinating history.

This pleases me because as a Jeremy Thorpe scholar (we're a small but lively crew) I know that, when Thorpe's father died leaving little inheritance, a rich uncle in the hat trade in Manchester stepped in to put Jeremy through Eton and Oxford. Legend has it that, in return, Jeremy promised to always wear a hat, and that became his trademark as a politician, when almost all MPs had stopped wearing them.

It almost makes me wish George Galloway had stood, because, as the last hat wearer in British politics, it would have been fitting for him to fight his last by-election in Denton.

Quite.

Ooh, Jenny Minto (my own MSP - Argyll & Bute - who is the SNP's Women's Health Minister)
knocked on my door a week ago, to ask me if I'd vote SNP in the forthcoming election.

So I asked her what a woman was.

It didn't go down well. Jenny Minto was vocal in her support of men who announce they're women. She refused to call them men. She actually told me that she believes they're women.

FFS.

I told her that her beliefs made it impossible for me to vote SNP, so she buggered off next door, where my (female) GC neighbour had exactly the same conversation with her.

Poor Jenny Minto
🤣

Oh my word! I very much hope she can expect the exact same question at every door. 😁

Sir Oinks-a-lot scores points in terms of hatwearing.

ALERT! Hannah Spencer is on Mumsnet.

Ok who is actually Hannah posting on this thread?

Sounds like a classic poster too. Is it wrong that I like her more now. Though she needs to grow up a bit women are still real Hannah don't be daft. Though considering she actually sounds refreshingly normal when she posts maybe the TA thing is an act? She also has a lot of money! I know plumbing pays well, but is she actually working class? We still don't know where she went to school.

Green by-election candidate ‘was glad she left’ area
Hannah Spencer accused of talking down Gorton and Denton after 2021 Mumsnet post unearthed

In a post on Mumsnet in 2021, Hannah Spencer also described the high street in Levenshulme, one of the main towns in the constituency, as being full of “money laundering takeaways”.
https://archive.is/wHTFU

Three different leaflets, three different rows in Gorton and Denton
Claims over who could win are causing a stir

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/three-leaflets-three-rows-gorton-33399977

I just tried searching for "money laundering takeaways" and it came up with zero hits.
Also searched under Levenshulme and found a thread but no mention of that in it.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/property/5410276-manchester-380k-budget-for-a-3-bed-where-to-buy

The Allies aren't going to like that she's on the prosecco Stormfront

The article has a screenshot attributed to "MartyHart [Hannah Spencer]" from 8 December 2021.

Tried searching that name but cannot see it.

Jeepers! You'd think being a Hale councillor would be enough to live down.

Nice to see that, since urban Lib Dems are nearly extinct, the Greens have carried on their tradition of winning here! bar charts.

Hypnotits learned the dark arts from the Masters. Just brought it with him.

Can you delete your old posts on MN?

Or is the Telegraph fibbing?

How did they get this info anyway are they MN obsessives?

Hi Telegraph!! WAVES!

Fucking hell, that is terrifying!😱😱😱

It's a bit rich of Reform to criticise her for complaining about money laundering takeaways. When thats a big part of their own complaints about the high street. I can understand "its hypocritical to complain about this but criticise Reform for drawing attention to the issue" but going straight to "doing the area down" is a bit knee jerk contrarianism. The death of the high street is an issue.

You have to be careful talking about takeaways.

Sadiq Khan is always bigging up Morleys, to the point where I sometimes wonder if they're sponsoring him, but Morleys is a very Sarf London thing. Their fried chicken which inspires cultlike loyalty south of the river is unknown to the rest of the capital. No wonder Labour is in trouble in the East End, where locals owe their tribal allegiance to Whitechapel Fried Chicken.

To be honest it doesn't look like the usual typeface of Mumsnet and I can (edited) not see any "real names" after the user names on my display, unless that's a perk of paid membership.

So it might have been sourced from a private DM chat from her? Wa she a Lib Dem before the greens? Is this like kompromat?

The Lib Dems could be doing payback for ZP revealing their leafleting Dark Arts?

More likely another local Green who is talking to the press. See the earlier article from Telegraph I posted which showed internal Green chats about Spencer.

The posts are still here on MN but advance searching shows that the Martyhart poster is in her 40s. I think it’s “HannahColobus” who she is replying to is Hannah and sure enough her post has been withdrawn. I think the Telegraph has got it confused!

Thats my speculation based on my search, anyway.