Voters have gone to the polls in Gorton and Denton after a bitter and hotly-contested few weeks – with Labour, the Green Party and Reform all slugging it out to win the seat
After a hotly-contested by-election, voters in Gorton and Denton will finally learn who their new MP is.
Defeat in the previously safe Labour seat would be a catastrophe for Keir Starmer. Polls have shown it is a three-way race between Labour, the Green Party and Reform.
The by-election was called last month after former Government minister Andrew Gwynne announced he was stepping down. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham attempted to become the Labour candidate, but was blocked from doing so. Instead local councillor Angeliki Stogia was picked to contest the seat.
But despite getting a majority of over 13,000 last time around, Labour faces a tight contest. Controversial Reform candidate Matt Goodwin and the Green Party’s Hannah Spencer are both in with a chance of heading to Westminister when the result comes in on Friday morning.
Here we look at who the candidates for the major parties are.
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Angeliki Stogia – Labour
A longstanding Labour councillor, Ms Stogia was unveiled as the party’s candidate last month after Andy Burnham’s bid was blocked.
The daughter of a nursery teacher and a trade unionist, she grew up in Arta, Greece, moving to Manchester 30 years ago to study at Manchester Metropolitan University. She became a naturalised British citizen and has been a councillor since 2012.
In an attack on Nigel Farage, she told The Mirror: “Nigel Farage is a fake, he’s a phony, he’s a charlatan, and he goes around making out he’s the hero of the working class, yet he goes against everything that is there to support working class communities.”
Hannah Spencer – Green
Plumner Ms Spencer, 34, is the leader of the Green Party group on Trafford Council.
When she was unveiled in January she said: “I work as a plumber, something I’ve done since leaving education at 16. I’m training to become a plasterer too. I’ve lived in the constituency and still work here. So, I know the issues and what people want to change.”
Back in 2015, Ms Spencer told the Manchester Evening News that she had launched her own plumbing business that year, having juggled plumbing with other jobs after leaving education aged 16. And she said last week: “I see in my job all the time the way that people are living and struggling. I’ll go to do a gas check on a boiler, and that boiler’s not been turned on since the person went there a year to do another gas check, because people just cannot afford to have the heating on.”
Matthew Goodwin – Reform
GB News host and academic Mr Goodwin is a deeply divisive figure.
Last year he was criticised when he seemed to suggest that people from minority ethnic backgrounds who are born in the UK are not necessarily British.
In a series of posts on X, Mr Goodwin said the mass stabbing on a train in Huntingdon was due to ‘mass uncontrolled immigration’. When it was pointed out that the attacker was born in Britain, he replied: “So were all of the 7/7 bombers. It takes more than a piece of paper to make somebody ‘British’.”
Nigel Farage has been out and about in the constituency campaigning with Mr Goodwin, who has been on an eyebrow-raising political journey. He served as an advisor to the previous government on tackling anti-Muslim hatred, worked with anti-racism charities like Hope Not Hate and co-authored the 2015 book Revolt on the Right.
While studying for a PHD at Bath University he wrote his thesis on the BNP, interviewing senior figures in the neo-Nazi movement. Mr Goodwin left academia in the summer of 2024 when he took redundancy as a professor at the University of Kent.
Charlotte Cadden – Tory
The former police officer – who worked in Manchester and London – was a Detective Chief Inspector in the Metropolitan Police when she retired.
Ms Cadden set up and chaired the police sex equality and equity network, to challenge workplace discrimination based on sex. She has said that getting a “proper inquiry” on grooming gangs is among her top priority.
Part of her duties in the Met included looking after the safety of MPs. She has also said that getting rid of carbon tax would be among her priorities.
When she was announced, Ms Cadden said: “I know we’re starting off from a very small base of Conservative voters from the last election but we’ve got our own policies – we need to get mobiles phones out of schools, we need to get rid of the carbon tax.”
Jackie Percey – Lib Dem
The Lib Dem candidate, who has a doctorate in nuclear physics, has been a prominent local campaigner for the Lib Dems.
She helped save the Gorton Monastery from being converted into flats. Ms Pearcey, who has been a school governor for 20 years, accused Labour of fighting over the keys to Number 10 rather than dealing with the issues that matter.
She said: “Voters in Gorton and Denton deserve so much more than the failing Labour government or the divisive politics of Reform UK.
“We have a golden opportunity to champion the issues that matter most to people – the cost of living, fixing the NHS and supporting our local high streets and businesses. I’ve got a proven track record of delivering for residents and I’ll continue to fight for the people of Gorton and Denton through this election and beyond.”