Zack Polanski ‘punched the air’ after bombshell Andy Burnham by-election information
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has said he ‘punched the air’ when he found out Andy Burnham was blocked from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election in Greater Manchester
Andy Burnham out campaigning with Labour’s candidate Angeliki Stogia (Image: Getty Images)
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has said he “punched the air” when he found out Andy Burnham was blocked from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election.
The Greens stormed to victory last night defeating Labour and Reform UK in the Greater Manchester constituency. Green candidate Hannah Spencer overturned a 13,413 majority won by Labour at the 2024 general election, while Nigel Farage’s right-wing outfit also overtook Labour.
Labour’s Angeliki Stogia received 9,364 votes and Reform’s Matt Goodwin got 10,578 votes.
The result triggered a backlash against Keir Starmer over the decision to block potential leadership rival Andy Burnham from standing in Gorton and Denton. Labour’s ruling body barred him from standing, citing the cost of running a race to replace him as Greater Manchester Mayor.
Mr Burnham threw his weight behind the campaign, often out door-knocking in an attempt to help Ms Stogia get elected. But some within Labour said it was a mistake to block him as a candidate as his popularity in Manchester could have helped the party hold of the seat.
READ MORE: Gorton and Denton by-election LIVE: Angela Rayner reacts to crushing Labour defeat
Labour MP Karl Turner branded the result “catastrophic” and said it was a mistake for Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) to stop Mr Burnham from standing. The Mainstream Labour group, which is backed by Mr Burnham, said it was a “catastrophic error” as he was “the one candidate who could have won it for us”.
Asked if he had been wrong to block Mr Burnham from standing, Mr Starmer this morning said Labour had had an “excellent candidate”.
Speaking at a press conference in Manchester on today, Mr Polanski said: “I’ll be completely honest, when Andy Burnham wasn’t selected, I punched the air and I thought it’s very probable we can win this. I wasn’t complacent, but I knew we could do it.”
But he added: “Having seen the anger out on the streets about the Labour Party, Andy Burnham is still a Labour politician. And I would say, no matter how popular you are, no matter even if you have some of the right positions, I think people in this country are looking at Labour MPs or high-profile Labour politicians and saying: ‘Where are your red lines? How can you stand by what this government is doing, whether we’re talking about the cost of living crisis, whether we’re talking about the genocide in Gaza?
“There was generally a real feeling that they were voted in on one word, ‘change’, and they’ve not offered a whole lot of it.”
Newly elected Green MP Ms Spencer said she thought the Greens could still have won against Mr Burnham. In response to a question from The Mirror, she said: “If he had stood I think we would have had a harder fight, but I think we possibly still would have won it.
“We’ve heard from so many people that they are so angry at Labour and have been for a very long time, that him standing as a Labour politician would not have helped in his campaign to be elected here and would have really gone against him.”
She said she thought selecting Mr Burnham as the candidate would not have been the “saving grace” for Labour some thought it would have been.
