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.

I've thought I've myself as being on the Left for the last 4 decades and when I was young, could never have imagined myself admiring a Tory but I like Kemi.

I don't like her economic beliefs (far too right wing for me) but I think that she's a strong, intelligent, empathetic woman and I like a lot of her social ideas.

same here.

How do you know this is not what is happening now? I suspect the Gorton and Denton muslim community is primarily poor, not highly educated, and Pakistani.

Of course the whole Israel/Gaza issue ( in the way we have seen it play out) is very much one of cultural and political identity, and for many muslims it is also and obviously very much one of religious affiliation and 'brotherhood'.

My personal vote is certainly tied up with women's protections and the issue of trans ideology - as are the votes of most women on this board, I'd say. That is why I've been spoiling my ballot in recent years. There is no way I'm voting for any candidate who supports trans ideology regardless of their position on anything else.

I'm hoping she'll become a little less ideological economically as she comes to terms with the pragmatic matter of how to best engage and court the sympathy of the electorate and get them on board her project.

"There is no way I'm voting for any candidate who supports trans ideology regardless of their position on anything else."

A distinctly, and foolishly, myopic stance.

and here.

And all these reasons and those of the previous poster are precisely why she won't get anywhere! Because she's not a big enough publicity hungry narcissist.

Agree. She just seems like a human being more than a lot of politicians. I disagree with many of her policies but feel she is rational, strong, and willing to listen. Those three qualities are extraordinarily rare in politics.

Still waiting @MissScarletInTheBedroom

Clearly my statement contained no obvious flaws then. You are just here to post the usual denials and disagreements with anything GC women say, yet cannot articulate any rational rebuttals.

It’s #NoDebate all over again. We stopped playing that game a long time ago now. You might be more at home on Reddit.

But one she has every right to hold to.
Just as someone else can make supporting Gaza a red line. And someone else make supporting Israel or withdrawal from the ICC in protest of their stance against Netanyahu. Or immigration.
I will happily debate until the cows come home over issues I care about. But I would draw the line at saying people using their power to vote however they wish are somehow subverting or undermining democracy. Even if I think something's a stupid hill to die on the whole way representative democracy functions is everyone deciding what their nice to have issues and their red lines are. That's what I don't like about Reforms complaints re Muslim voters in GandD. If the emphasis had been "we Muslims need to vote against the non-Muslims here" it would indeed be a case of divisive identity politics. As it is it's Reform being the more divisive and sore losers .

Lol. A classic response.

Utterly without understanding, accuracy, or merit. 🙄

Which parts and why?

Either debate in good faith or argue like a toddler. Your choice.

I'm still undecided. The issue with women's rights won't be my deciding issue but it will play a role

The problem with the Tories is they are still leaning towards tearing up a whole bunch of rights and still haven't worked out Brexit related trade issues and distance. And they aren't addressing certain economic issues any better than anyone else.

I live in a constituency that's odd too and doesn't tend to follow national patterns too which will probably ultimately sway me.

I can't do Reform or greens. So yeah.

She does, of course, as do we all. But I maintain it is a foolishly short-sighted stance to take.

That you have an ideology you are passionate about is - generally speaking - laudable, but to carry that through to the the conclusion you would never vote for a party simply because one aspect of their stance, either real of perceived, carries with it very real dangers.

For one thing, it implies you would vote for a party that does not hold a stance contrary to your own on that one particular subject, regardless of their other stances. That is myopia to the point of insanity.

I think it is infinitely more sensible, not to mention more compassionate, to measure and weigh all parties on all their stances, then place your vote for the one who most aligns with your ideology and/or you genuinely believe will hurt people the least.

Very clearly, no sane or rational person would vote for the Pound Shop fascists simply on the basis they maintain no policy on trans-rights, or their policy on that one issue just happens to align with your ideology.

The world, alas, is rarely as simplistic as we'd like it to be, and often we need to make political decisions based not on hard and fast values, but on managing a level of damage control to the country and populous at large.

"The issue with women's rights won't be my deciding issue but it will play a role"

I absolutely agree with you on this point; this is precisely how it should be.

According to a YouGov poll in Q4 2025, she's the 12th most popular Conservative politician (out of 106). Amongst solely women voters, she is the 3rd most popular - ahead of Rishi Sunak but behind (strangely) John Major and David Frost.

Her popularity may have grown since that poll, she has had some good moments on Prime Ministers Questions.

Anyway, I wouldn't describe myself as her supporter but she sounds more sensible to me right now than a lot of other politicians.

yougov.com/en-gb/ratings/conservative-politicians

Anyone who throws around terms like ‘Pound Shop fascists’ is resorting to childish name calling and is best ignored.

If someone will lie to my face and say men can be women and I should just shove over and give my rights, my daughter’s rights, and my granddaughters’ rights away, then why should I believe anything else they say? They clearly believe women are second class citizens.

It’s a dealbreaker for me, and for many other women.

Not in the slightest. It represents an absolute no-go for me if they are so ideologically blinded. Also, these TRA activist politicians, and others who consider themselves 'allies', have treated women that don't bow down to trans ideology in a despicable way.( My own Labour MP even refused to meet her constituents on this issue).

Why would you vote for someone so opposed to something you consider to be of fundamental importance, and who displays such a tendency to ideological conformism and group think?

Once a party or a candidate has lost your trust in this way it is very difficult to gain it back.

Sex Matters trustee Charlotte Cadden got the lowest percentage any Tory candidate has ever received in any by-election since the party was formed in the 17th century.

I think if someone is prone to ideological group think on one issue, then they'll also likely be prone to ideological group think on any number of other issues. The omni-cause.

You never did say whether you support Gender Self Id, or believe that some men are actually women ( TWAW). I take it you do?

I think that was always going to be the case in this constituency. I don't take it as a comment on the issue of women's protected categories or child 'transition.

The reality and consequences of Sex are not an ideology. Everyone, even trans activists, at heart, recognise the reality of sex and also women's specific vulnerabilities around males in certain types of situation - it is why they also tend bang on about 'male violence' and 'feminism' so much. It is just that they have fallen for a post modernistic set of ideas about 'the Self' that originated on university campuses and have taken hold of what is now termed 'the progressive Left'. It requires acts of double think and cognitive dissonance to maintain itself.

An ideology is a set of ideas and a whole accompanying thought system which one adheres to in order to tell a story about how the world operates. Trans ideology tells us that some males are actually really female and that there is this thing called a 'gender identity' which is both unmeasurable and undefinable, yet at the same time more real than the body or biology - and which also over-rides those protections which have been put in place to guard female dignity, privacy and safety.

It is not sex based protections which are the ideology. They are the fundamentals of how we recognise/take into account the differences between the sexes and the consequences of those differences - especially for women and girls, and for children more generally.

I wouldn't vote for anyone who had a fundamentally different set of values to myself.......- but going forward i could definitely see myself voting for the Conservatives.....so long as they maintain their distance from Reform. I like Kemi Badenoch and there is nothing particularly fundamental I disagree with her on. It would be good to be able to vote positively for someone again.

I recall a poster who I’m sure had ‘MissScarlet’ in the user name who was an A&E physician - is that you?

Well done to the women who voted in this woman. All women are far better off because of it.

Answering myself and the answer is no. Different poster. But does anyone else remember who I’m talking about?