2026 Gorton and Denton by-election
26 February 2026
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gorton and Denton constituency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turnout | 47.6% ( 0.2 pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Boundary of Gorton and Denton in North West England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
A by-election for the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of Gorton and Denton was held on 26 February 2026, following the resignation of Andrew Gwynne on health grounds. Gwynne was sitting as an independent following suspension from the Labour Party for sending offensive WhatsApp messages.
Hannah Spencer of the Green Party won the by-election with 40.7% of the vote and a majority of 4,402, becoming the Green Party's fifth MP and first in the North of England. It is the party's first by-election victory and their highest vote share in a by-election, by a margin of 30 percentage points.
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, applied to be the Labour candidate, but was blocked by the party's National Executive Committee (NEC). Commentators described his bid as a possible springboard for a leadership challenge to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The result was widely considered a significant blow for Starmer, as the Labour Party's first election loss in Gorton since the 1931 UK general election and the seventh largest Labour majority to be overturned at a by-election. Commentators described the result as seismic and historic, showing the rise of newer parties in British politics, and undermining Labour's political strategy.