Faiza Shaheen nails why people voted for hope in Gorton and Denton

[gorton and denton]

Inequality economist Faiza Shaheen has summed up why people chose hope in the Gorton and Denton by-election. The Green’s Hannah Spencer won by a mile in the Manchester constituency by-election.

## “Represent” the people

On social media, Shaheen [said][1]:

> Greens came from nowhere to win in one of the safest Labour seats in the country. This is evidence that people want politicians that represent them, not the billionaires and city lobbyists

As part of a wide-reaching purge of progressives (that may have now backfired given the rise of the Greens), Keir Starmer arbitrarily blocked Shaheen from standing as a Labour candidate in the 2024 election. That’s despite her performance against Conservative Iain Duncan Smith in the Chingford and Woodford Green constituency in 2019. She came [within][2] around 1,000 votes from unseating him.

The Autonomy Institute made the corruption around corporate influence clear with its research last year. 373 companies have made over £60 billion from public contracts following their political donations in “recent years”.

As Shaheen points out, the public are sick of it and the result in Gorton and Denton reflects that. The Greens won a landslide victory in what [appeared][3] to be a close race. The party [received][4] 14,980 votes to Reform’s 10,578.

## ‘Muslims would forget’

Economist and politician Shaheen continued with her reasons for the Green win:

> Labour’s complicity in a genocide has hurt them (David Lammy once told me that Muslims would forget!); and that people can and will defeat the divisive politics of Reform. Thank you Hannah Spencer, Zack Polanski and the Green Party

Despite the ceasefire, people aren’t forgetting the indiscriminate bombardment of Palestinian people. Labour was in a position to help stop the onslaught and instead has done the opposite.

As Shaheen says, the Greens are showing that a re-balancing of the economy away from billionaires and elites.

*Featured image via the Canary*

By [James Wright][5]

[1]: https://x.com/faizashaheen/status/2027240594238505458
[2]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/E14000634
[3]: https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2026/02/20/gorton-and-denton-polling/
[4]: https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2026/02/27/gorton-and-denton-win/
[5]: https://www.thecanary.co/author/james/


https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2026/02/28/gorton-and-denton-hope/