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.

Are there any gc women left in the green women group i thought that they kicked them all out (not being funny but there statement that if you're gc you're not welcome)

For about the last 3 years, the TRAs haven't stood any candidates for the Green Party Women committee so only GCs have been elected - which is why several of them have been suspended or expelled.

GPW committee elections are being run at the moment. The majority of candidates are founding signatories of the Green Women's Declaration (so definitely GC) and the other 3 seem pretty sensible.

Reform have suspended Adam Mitula.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c89k0g7vexeo

The hoo ha about the Urdu as has prompted Polanski to CLAP BACK with a new ad in Bengali

https://nitter.net/ZackPolanski/status/2026379133555441982#m

Labour briefing against Greens now. They must be rattled.

I knew Polanski reminded me of someone. Just couldn't quite put my finger on it.

Cant he do one in Polish? Seriously though , if the Greens win it won't represent a seismic shift in politics. Just people voting against Reform. Like in 24 they voted against the Tories rather than for Labour. Desperately shaking the kaleidoscope to try and get a sensible , sane , rational government - but thwarted at every turn by the archaic , undemocratic FPTP system.

It may turn out that the only thing that made any difference was Polanski persuading Galloway to stand down. You may dislike Galloway but it's impossible to overstate how much he matters in certain Muslim communities.

I wouldn't be surprised if Gallows had loaned a few personnel and given campaign tips while he was it. Labour people sound not just rattled but stunned. They're used to Green activists being nice but slightly useless yummy mummy types who don't really play a role in the rough and tumble of a by-election. They weren't expecting to be given the full Galloway treatment.

Stunned is a good way to put it. If Labour lose they’ll do their usual of blaming everyone else. They will be damaged by a loss still.

An Islamic jurist (who is affiliated with The Muslim Vote) gives his opinion on what the religious duty of Muslims is. He doesn't explicitly tell his followers who to vote for, but he makes his preferences clear.

The point here is that even though we may not always feel comfortable with some of the social values that British political parties and candidates align with, these issues can be overlooked in pursuit of more urgent matters. For instance, protecting our brothers and sisters facing genocide in Gaza, or at the very least reducing harm against them....

It all boils down to, you might be influenced by petty local concerns about housing or the NHS or similar, but this is really important and your duty is to see the bigger picture and support the Gaza candidate.

A small election with historic consequences | Islam21c

We have to ask ourselves how the way we vote can impact Muslims globally.

Integration going from strength to strength, I see.

Do they actually have a majority of voters to ensure this? The writer makes some scripture references like it's permissable to, well in effect lie about other stuff if their life is in danger.

There's a definite whiff of "it's permissible to vote for these degenerate communists if it advances the Palestinian cause, but remember that we don't believe the same things that they do"

Also noticed that the Urdu advert features Mothin Ali, but Zack is nowhere to be seen.

I'm confused. Are Muslims a problem in the UK because they want to impose Shariah law? Or are they a problem because they are happy to turn a blind eye to more liberal social policies (while continuing to practice their more conservative values at a personal level)?
It seems to be both, but also it can't be both logically.

I really don't see how electing Hannah Spencer is going to help Gaza

Galloway, I can see it. There are some places in the Middle East where Galloway is basically a rock star, the only Brit anyone there has heard of. Crazy but true.

I suppose the argument is that destitute kids living in the rubble in Gaza need something to give them hope, and what better hope than hearing that voters in the Manchester suburbs have elected a woman who dresses like Doctor Who.

It won't. It's performative 😡

This seems to correlate with the constituency.

56% voters are white British and 26% are Asian. 69% of residents UK passport holders

39% identifying as Christian with Muslim population at about 28% then no religion

https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/customprofiles/build/#E14001251

Should a Green candidate be elected to parliament, it will only be one time that most Muslims will ever vote for them. The only people who can help Gaza are the people who govern it and those they have to negotiate with in order to govern it. Thus their vote on this issue alone will be totally performative, and then the actual Green policies will make their presence felt - and which are, of course, totally contrary to any conservative and/or religious values.

I don’t know much about Hannah but seeing a quick SM post she’s easily trouncing Starmer on that score.

It’s not hard though, perhaps even his SM team dislike him, enough to post what they do.

Nothing new though is it ? I remember the Bermondsey by election in the 80s vividly. Local issues went AWOL completely as the press and most politicians focused on the really important thing - preventing the election of a left wing ' Aussie p**f' as the Sun described him. To this end everyone was exhorted to vote Lib Dem , Tories being anathema in Docklands. And so it came to pass.

The best outcome , with the benefit of hindsight but that is another story. Further back , the Liverpool Scotland constituency elected an Irish Home Rule candidate for many years after Ireland left the UK - T P O'Connor. Then again he was probably v good on local issues too. Sometimes returned unopposed.

The Liverpool Irish thing would be quite familiar in many other countries where there are concentrated diaspora communities. An old friend who was involved in postal union activism in 1980s London once described to me how his sorting office had an active branch of Grenada's New Jewel Movement.

You can take it too far of course. I always think Galloway has lost his ability to make me cringe, but that time when he travelled to Bangladesh to launch his general election campaign...

The Muslims of Longsight are overwhelmingly Pakistani, not Palestinian, but I suppose this is downstream of decades of Labour politics where waving the Palestinian flag was an easier and cheaper substitute than lifting up deprived communities.

I agree it will be a protest. Against the government and making sure Reform is not elected.

The analogy of Bermondsey where the Lib Dems were the benefit, though it has to be said they elected a man in Simon Hughes who worked tirelessly for the people of the area. Indeed when he lost after many years, the Labour candidate made a point of thanking Simon for all his work in the area.

I'm not that keen on having God determine my vote. Especially when God wanted me to vote Brexit. That was a bit of a disaster and no mistake.🤦‍♀️

Then God apparently wanted Americans to vote for Trump? A lying, criminal, sex offender? Who's wrecking their country?
😱😱😱

I don't think God is good at directing votes. To me, votes are time, space and circumstance, specific. Gods, by their nature are shit at this sort of stuff.🤷‍♀️