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.

Probably your drains, try Dyno Rod.

I agree this has been a great thread @fromorbit.

I've learnt a lot about the Greens, feckless gods, plumbers, Muslims and Mnetters who communicate in code, most of us dont understand.

Or maybe it's just me.🙈

For goodness sake!

2 Mumsnetters who know each other from elsewhere both end up being on the same Mumsnet thread so make a few coded references to their friendship that other posters on the thread won't get.

It's no big deal and I don't know why it bothers you.

"It's no big deal and I don't know why it bothers you."

Now, why would you say that? Are you part of the coded conspiracy?
Or, given I happen to have chosen a slightly similar name to this person, am I?

This thing runs deep...

Thank you.

Well I find myself in the odd position of defending a Green MP who beat a Labour candidate who would probably have been more generally effective- but-
A) the question took her by surprise she's a plumber not a talk show host and the skills she brings to debate are going to need time to develop whilst her other skills enhance parliament
B) I agree with your point about most Muslims not supporting the attack - you wonder why she didn't respond with a typical narrative- good/ bad Muslims- but there is also a reality that trauma is often transferred - and has to be actively worked with rather than weaponised- for healing to happen and to promote safety. .. She has wanted to address the inappropriatness of using trauma to point score politically- how this exacerbates rather than heals.
Her and Angeliki talked about and re inforced how the community had come together and responded, and it was the opposite of what Matt Goodwin was doing. I think that did come across as a contrast. I could see it so it must have.
This is something most people would not manage to express easily when out on the spot. We have been conditioned into oppositional discourse. . But I respect both women immensely for respecting the grief, and inforcing the strength of unity in the Manchester community in the aftermath of the attack. It was obviously something they'd lived through directly and the direct experience came across and had more depth than Matt Goodwins.

It’s you, as @cariadletpp it’s no big deal.

Map replicating the swing in Gorton if it was repeated across the UK.

Not really favouring the greens but more Reform. I assume because they barely had any cut through in the last election so the difference would be more marked?

https://nitter.net/ElectionMapsUK/status/2027318516823507329#m

Maybe a leap to think that'd replicate in the numbers. That's a reform generated chart isn't it? People voted to keep reform out. That'd look different in different areas.

I suspect the GP have many factions pulling in different directions. Muslim and LGBT are two poles that are alrady causing friction - Mothin has only sidestepped and avoided it so far but it cant last forever.

Then there are the new influx of people who've been promised endless free money and rainbows, and the last remainng environmentalists.

At base the Greens are promising limitless individual freedom based on a currency made entirely of feelz.

Green issues should be specific, practical, clear, informed and related to the environment. Call me old fashioned. That was the whole point. It wasnt supposed to be a grab bag of every mad idea you heard in the student union at 2 am.

I guess you could call it a hive mind in that it is a hub that most of us made our way to when there was nowhere else we could meet and talk with others who felt the same way. It has been a phenomenally busy and productive hive too - as all good hives are.

Understanding that sex is real and has consequneces is not a belief, it is one of the most fundamental truths on planet earth - recognised the world over, and across all species.

Agreed

erish said another site, not mumsnet

plus I don’t think erish changes her name…its fairly hard to talk in a code about another thread/board when you have the same name as that thread/board

Janice Turner was for a long time a lone voice at the Times, but one we were all thankful for. Before Janice, and a few at the Guardian, who when then expelled for even bringing the issue up ( The Guardian is now beholden to its american 'progressive' readership and has out-sourced much of its 'journalism' to its american stable of writers) there was no public discussion of this most important issue. Speech and discussion were effectively suppressed and people banned from various forums and platforms, including this one.

If journalism is to bring matters of political and social significance to public attention, then the Times has done an excellent job. Look how far we've now come. Before Janice Turner the vast majority of the public had no clue what was actually going on in the name of 'trans rights'. Now they do.

It is the trans movement that has been bankrolled by very wealthy individuals and their organisations, and pushed by the so called American 'progressive Left' in the academy. The fight-back has been truly grassroots. Women meeting in secret in each others homes; under the thrreat of attack in their own towns and cities. And a few committed jourmalists, lawyers, academics, doctors, polticians...because you know...women have lives and careers and areas of influence and expertise off this board too

Yes, Janice came to the infamous Venice Allan Speakers Corner meeting and saw Maria McLachlan get beaten up by TRAs AFAIK, which kicked off the mainstream GC resistance campaigns.

I think they have. You cannot be a serious party leader or an MP and refuse to give interviews to certain mainstream publications. You are going to have to have your proposals and ideas tested to the maximum. This is where it will fall apart for them; especially Polanski.

When you are just talking to your own crowd and they all think you are wonderful it is easy to think your ideas will fly with everyone. And let's face it many of the Greens ideas are totally off the wall.

If the Labour party now veers to the Left, as many are suggesting needs to happen, it will simply split the Left vote ( many will stick with the Greens) and alienate the more moderate and/or centrist voters that every party needs to win a general election.

The problem for the Greens is that Labour and Conservatives have introduced environmental policies, to mixed success. So not only have the parties stolen the Greens USP, but made the public more cynical of the more radical ones.

At the same time, labour has tried to discourage the more bonkers ideas. So these people end up in the Greens who not only welcome them but have no internal mechanism to say no to the mad ideas.

In a way, the Greens can survive that because they arent powerful enough to implement much, also the various groups arent effected by the different policies. Muslim people in heavily muslim areas dont have to worry about trans ideology in schools, for example. Luxury beliefs, but based on PC not wealth.

The Green campaign was part George Galloway with very different leafletting in different areas. But also very LD, where she was dancing in the street and not saying much. So the message was shes a nice, relatable women and dont worry we have the policies as a party.

As @fromorbit said, the Greens have a conference soon, I foresee a greater level of media interest in any silliness or drama than past ones.

It depends what veering to the left means really. Emphasising and naming different things might not be bad idea- commitment to health based drugs care for example- as recommended by the BMA - is already happening pragmatically and tacitly all over the country- since it's impossible to lock everyone up.
The greens plans are vague since you can't directly transport what happens in other countries. I feel.labour could use specific discussions a lot.

Where is the conference going to be held?

I suspect it will mean rejecting anything that Shabana Mahmood and Wes Streeting have proposed or are doing. And It will be cultural as well as economic. They are taking the Greens win as an indication that their policy ideas would be popular with the public - rather than just with their own party and trade union members, as is really the case.

They'd be daft to read too much into a Green win on a 40% turnout.

As Reform could tell you, success for an insurgent party means increased scrutiny. They've been on a steep learning curve, but luckily Rupert Lowe is taking their lunatic fringe off their hands.

The Greens have been around for nearly 50 years in one form or another, and it's only rarely that they've attracted much scrutiny. I think the party brand gives them a bit of a halo effect and an image as the "nice" party. But if they're no longer fringe players, and actually a big story in their own right, they'll have to learn to handle scrutiny.

There are some rum characters in the Greens nowadays. And probably not many people who remember when David Icke was their most prominent figure.

Here's Shippers on the winners and losers - he seems pretty on point:
The winners and losers from the Gorton by-election

The Green Party Spring Conference 2026 is online - 28th and 29th March 2026.

The Autumn Conference will be 2nd - 4th October and will be in person. The venue isn't confirmed. I think the party is still looking as they want a larger venue because of predicted much larger attendance than previous conferences.