More than a dozen ministers together with Wes Streeting drafted in to knock doorways within the pouring rain as Labour fights to cling on in knife-edge Gorton and Denton by-election
More than a dozen ministers were drafted in to join the final hours of Labour‘s by-election campaign as it fought to cling on to a formerly safe seat.
Senior members of the Cabinet including Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson all braved pouring rain in the North West to knock on doors and hand out leaflets with the result on a knife edge.
Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones and Chief Whip Jonathan Reynolds also took to the streets of Gorton and Denton, in a sign of how seriously the party was taking the fight to stop its former voters deserting to the Greens on the left and Reform on the right.
The seat had long been a Labour stronghold and former MP Andrew Gwynne held it with a 13,413 majority at the general election.
But he stood down after the Mail on Sunday revealed he had made offensive comments on WhatsApp about locals while nationally the party is losing support both to Reform and the Greens, forcing it to throw everything at the by-election campaign.
In total more than 1,000 Labour activists travelled to the constituency on Thursday in a desperate effort to avert a defeat that would spark a fresh crisis for Sir Keir Starmer – who unexpectedly visited the campaign on Monday – after polls found that the three-way contest was too close to call.
Among them was Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, whom the PM controversially blocked from standing over fears he would use his return to Parliament to challenge him for the leadership.
He insisted he was not sorry he was on the ballot paper, however, at a final photocall for Labour’s hopeful Angeliki Stogia.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who was blocked from standing in today’s Gorton and Denton by-election, with Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia
Health Secretary Wes Streeting was among more than a dozen ministers who were drafted in for Labour’s final day of door-knocking
‘No, we’ve got a brilliant candidate, and she hasn’t put a foot wrong,’ Mr Burnham said.
‘She’s been out every day. She’s done us proud.’
She said: ‘We’ve got more than 1,000 volunteers out as we speak. We’re expecting more people to join us later on, people are enthused with the campaign and we are going to carry on knocking, and, you know, we’ve got the blessings of the Manchester rain.’
Deputy Leader Lucy Powell insisted before polls opened: ‘We are positive, we are feeling confident.’
However the campaign has been marred by allegations of dirty tricks with Labour accused of putting misleading bar charts on its leaflets that omitted the Greens, as well as faking a tactical voting organisation.
As polling opened, the Greens also tried to portray themselves as the only way to stop Reform winning.
Their candidate Hannah Spencer said in a final video: ‘Right now Labour are out of the race.’
Nigel Farage joined in the efforts to get out the vote too, saying the contest was between his candidate Matt Goodwin and the Greens.
He said Reform UK was becoming a ‘proper, professional’ political party but admitted: ‘Who’s going to win? I couldn’t tell you.’
The result is expected in the early hours of Friday morning.
