Floundering Keir Starmer insisted he will 'fight on' today after being humiliated by the Greens in a disastrous by-election.
Angela Rayner is among those demanding 'change' as critics insisted Sir Keir is personally culpable for the 'worst possible' result in Gorton & Denton.
But the PM tried to front up the anger this morning, playing down the meltdown as a 'disappointing' setback for a Government in 'mid-term'. He also shrugged off condemnation for blocking Andy Burnham from being the Labour candidate, and dodged directly addressing whether he had considered quitting.
The Greens had never won a Parliamentary by-election - or a seat in the North - but Hannah Spencer romped home with a 4,400 majority.
Despite flooding the area with ministers and 1,000 activists, Labour did not even have the consolation of second place, with its candidate trailing in behind Reform's Matt Goodwin. Nigel Farage complained of 'cheating' and Muslim 'sectarianism' after reports of so-called 'family voting' from independent observers - an illegal practice where people are escorted to polling booths.
Allies insisted he will survive at least until local elections in May, because rebels 'don't have anyone' in a position to challenge.
But there are already furious recriminations going on, after the premier blocked popular Manchester mayor Mr Burnham from being the candidate amid fears he would be a leadership rival in the Commons.
Asked on a visit in London if he had contemplated resigning, the PM said: 'It's a very disappointing result.
'Incumbent governments quite often get results like that mid-term, but I do understand that voters are frustrated. They're impatient for change.'
'And I came into politics late in life, as it happens, to fight for change for those people who need it, the people who need an NHS that works for them, to be able to get a doctor's appointment when they need it, to get the money they need in their pockets to pay their bills and to have a decent and better life.
'And I will keep on fighting for those people for as long as I've got breath in my body.
'I will also fight against the extremes in politics on the Right and the Left parties who want to tear our country apart.'
The result demonstrates that Zack Polanski's 'eco-populist' Greens are capable of shattering Labour's fragile coalition of voters, despite peddling a host of extreme policies including legalising hard drugs, scrapping the nuclear deterrent, and leaving the Nato military alliance.
The apparent success of Ms Spencer's focus on Gaza, with a significant Muslim vote in Gorton & Denton, will spread panic among Sir Keir's MPs.
Among other developments on a breathtaking day of political drama:
- Kemi Badenoch said Labour created the 'monster of harvesting Muslim community bloc votes' and it had come back to bite them;
- Mr Polanski denied playing on 'racism' among Muslim voters by using pictures during the campaign of Sir Keir with India's Hindu PM Narendra Modi;
- Reform has notified the police after independent observers raised concerns about the highest levels of 'family voting' they had seen for a decade;
- In a new threat to Sir Keir, Jeremy Corbyn said Your Party would work 'constructively with the Greens';
- Political scientists Professor Rob Ford said Labour was being crushed between the Left and the Right, telling Sky News: 'The number of Labour MPs who will now be worried about their prospects of re-election has just gone up very substantially.'
- The Tories lost their deposit after effectively sitting out the by-election contest;
Hannah Spencer, the victorious Green by-election candidate, takes a selfie with party leader Zack Polanski
Allies insisted Keir Starmer (pictured in London today) will survive at least until local elections in May, because rebels 'don't have anyone' in a position to challenge
Angela Rayner called for 'change' as critics insisted Sir Keir is personally culpable for the 'worst possible' result in Gorton & Denton
Angela Rayner branded the result a 'wake up call' as she demanded a new 'Labour agenda'
In a message to Labour MPs, some of whom face a challenge from the Greens in their own seats, Sir Keir acknowledged the result 'hurts' but he sought to play down its wider impact, insisting Mr Polanski's party would not be able to mount a similar campaign on a national scale.
'The Greens may have won here, but they simply do not have the resources, the activist base or the local knowledge to replicate this victory across the country,' he said.
'We've seen that before. We've seen it with the Lib Dems, who have often won mid-term by-elections against both the Conservatives and Labour, but never been able to come close to winning nationally. We've seen it with George Galloway, who won two mid-term by-elections but held neither of those seats in a general election.'
Sir Keir is being branded a 'lame duck leader' and 'toast' by opponents, having barely survived a Labour coup attempt a fortnight ago.
But both Labour loyalists and rebels pointed to the absence of plausible rivals, with Mr Burnham not an MP, Ms Rayner still to resolve her tax wrangles with HMRC, and Wes Streeting seen as damaged by his links to Lord Mandelson.
Ms Rayner - seen by many as the favourite to replace Sir Keir - stopped short of urging him to go immediately. But she said the party must be 'braver'.
'This result must be a wake up call. It's time to really listen - and to reflect. Voters want the change that we promised - and they voted for,' she said.
Ms Rayner said: 'If we want to unrig the system, if we want to make the change we were sent into Government to make, we have to be braver.
'A Labour agenda that puts people first. That's what all of us across our movement need to rededicate ourselves to this morning.'
As the backlash gathered pace this morning, backbencher Karl Turner said it was the 'worst result we could have expected', insisting Mr Burnham would have won and calling for a more 'socialist' Labour.
Brian Leishman said Sir Keir should 'do the right thing... and go'.
Fellow MP Richard Burgon said the 'blame for defeat lies squarely with Keir Starmer and his clique' and demanded a wealth tax, while Rachael Maskell told the Daily Mail the PM must show he can 'turn it round' by U-turning on jury trials.
Unions also upped the ante by telling Sir Keir to 'stop listening to your rich mates'.
Mr Leishman said: 'The blame lies with Starmer & the people that surround him. Blocking Burnham was wrong & he did it for his own benefit.
'The political idea that we should try & out-Reform Reform is wrong & been rejected. Time he did the right thing for the country & the Labour Party, and go.'
Kate Osborne, another MP on the Left of the party, said 'Starmer personally leading the intervention at the NEC officers meeting to block Burnham was not only obviously a huge error but also showed just how weak he is'.
Condemning Labour's 'negative' campaigning in the contest, she added: 'Ultimately it is his Labour's policies and campaigning that lost us this seat, from his policies on pensions, winter fuel, welfare cuts to immigration - nationally we are not getting it right and we are letting the country down.'
London MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy said: 'Being pushed to third in Gorton & Denton, one of our safest seats, is an indictment of the government's current approach. Unless we get back to core Labour values, we are heading for disaster.'
Mr Burgon said: 'Blame for Labour's defeat lies squarely with Keir Starmer and his clique.
'They put factional interests over having the candidate best placed to win, Andy Burnham.
'If Labour is to be the 'Stop Reform' party, then the leadership must stop treating progressive voters with contempt - and start appealing to them.
'That means a return to real Labour values - through policies like a Wealth Tax, public ownership of energy and water, and an ethical foreign policy that are all popular with the public.'
York MP Ms Maskell said 'the PM has to show he can turn this around before May', when the Government faces crucial local elections.
'The first test will be with jury trials which has to be dropped from the Courts and Tribunals Bill. He needs to work with his backbenchers to listen to what we are saying in the interests of our communities,' she said.
Mr Turner told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'Well it's catastrophic, isn't it? I mean, that's the truth. It couldn't be any worse.
'Having the Greens in Manchester is the worst result we could have expected or we wanted, frankly.
'But you know, the reality is, Burnham was blocked. He shouldn't have been, in my view.'
Mr Turner said unpopular policy is the reason Labour came third and lost their majority in the Greater Manchester constituency.
'This is the stuff on Gaza and Palestine and a build-up of policy which is unpopular,' the Kingston upon Hull East MP said.
'And frankly the fact that Andy Burnham was blocked, who was the candidate who gave us our best chance, that's why we are where we.'
Former frontbencher Jon Trickett told Times Radio Sir Keir had to 'look in the mirror and make a decision about his own personal future'.
Another Labour MP said ruling out Mr Burnham was compounded by not proposing a Muslim candidate.
'They didn't allow a single Muslim on the shortlist, blocking three applicants,' they said.
'Labour have a huge deal to do to win back the Muslim vote and this has brought that home today.'
A loyal Labour MP told the Daily Mail: 'He will be able to hold on because this emboldens the soft Left of party but they don't have a candidate ready to run.'
Another usually strong supporter of Sir Keir said: 'It goes to show what happens when you spend a year abandoning progressive values.'
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: 'If Labour needed any further wake up calls - this is clearly one. Labour need to now ditch the gimmicks and get back to being Labour - not new, not one that plays games, but real Labour...
'Stop listening your rich mates and start listening to everyday people.'
The humiliation will be especially personal as Sir Keir made a campaign visit to the seat on Monday - although he was carefully kept away from ordinary voters.
As the party staged a massive get-out-the-vote drive yesterday the premier was giving a speech in Newcastle, where schoolchildren were pictured struggling to stay awake.
Sir Keir's premiership was already reeling from the Peter Mandelson scandal, with Labour MPs increasingly mutinous over their party's dire poll ratings.
Labour won Gorton and Denton at the 2024 general election with more than half the vote. Although it was a new seat, the party has held that area of Greater Manchester since 1931.
However, less than two years on, the Greens overturned Labour's majority of more than 13,000 votes to give themselves a fifth MP in the House of Commons.
Ms Spencer will become only the sixth-ever Green MP. She is thought to be the first woman plumber to enter Parliament.
Mr Polanski said: 'If we see a swing like this at the next general election, there will be a tidal wave of new Green MPs.'
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said it had been a 'difficult and disappointing night' for Labour but people should not 'over-interpret' the result.
She said it was 'offensive' for the Unite leader to jibe about ministers having 'rich mates'.
'We shouldn't over interpret this result, and just because we had the result that we did last night, doesn't mean to say… that the party can't recover from this,' Ms Alexander told Times Radio.
Ms Spencer secured 14,980 votes to win the seat with a 4,402-vote majority ahead of Reform candidate Mr Goodwin (10,578 votes), and Labour's Ms Stogia (9,364 votes).
In her victory speech, Ms Spencer apologised to customers who have booked her in for plumbing jobs.
'Now to my customers, I'm sorry, but I think I might have to cancel the work that you had booked in, because I'm heading to Parliament!' she joked.
'And when I get there, I will make space for everyone doing jobs like mine. We will finally get a seat at the table.'
She added that 'life has changed' for local communities.
'Instead of working for a nice life, we're working to line the pockets of billionaires. We are being bled dry,' she said.
'And I don't think it's extreme or radical to think working hard should get you a nice life. And I don't think that if you're not able to work that you should still have a nice life. I think that absolutely everybody should get a nice life.'
But Reform leader Mr Farage claimed the Gorton and Denton by-election was 'a victory for sectarian voting and cheating'.
He added in a post on X: 'Matt Goodwin was a great candidate for us. Roll on the elections on May 7th. It will be goodbye Starmer and goodbye to the Tory party.'
It came amid a furious row over allegations of 'high levels' of 'family voting' in the Greater Manchester contest.
Mr Goodwin said Reform had 'embarrassed Labour in one of their strongest seats', adding: 'I think if we can do this here, we can do this pretty much anywhere.'
He continued: 'I think what you've seen is the emergence of a dangerous sectarianism in British politics. I think the Greens are riding a very dangerous wave.
'I'm very concerned about the direction of the country. And I think many people are going to be watching this by-election, and they're going to be feeling the same thing that I am, which is deep concern about where Britain is heading.
'I think the progressives were told how to vote, and I think what you saw was a coalition of Islamists and woke progressives that came together to dominate a constituency.
'And many people in this country will look at Gorton and Denton and be appalled by what they see.'
Polling guru Sir John Curtice said 'nervousness' on Labour benches will be fuelled, and it was more evidence the dominance of the main parties was fading.
He told BBC Breakfast: 'There are two big messages that come out of this. The first, of course, the most immediate, is that the nervousness that already existed inside the Labor Party about Keir Starmer's ability to turn around his party's electoral fortunes, that nervousness is now going to be heightened.'
Referring to the local elections in May, he continued: 'Not that there will be any move against the Prime Minister before May the 7th, but his chances of surviving after May the 7th if the results are bad, have, I think, been diminished.
'The second major key point is that this result raises further questions about the future of what was once a dominance of British politics by Conservative and Labour.
'We have now had two by-elections this Parliament – one by Reform, one by the Greens – and we are seeing increasingly evidence that voters are willing to vote for parties other than the conventional, traditional parties of British politics.'
The Greens pitched themselves during the by-election campaign as the only option for anti-Reform UK voters.
In the early hours of Friday, before the official result was announced, a deflated Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell admitted the Greens had 'managed to win the argument that they were best placed' to beat Mr Farage's party.
'I wanted Angeliki Stogia to be my colleague in Parliament,' Ms Powell told Sky News.
'But I think what is really clear is that there is a big majority in this constituency that hasn't voted for Reform.
'And on the day the Greens have managed to win that argument that they were best placed to do that.
'But I'm not sure whether that would totally translate in a general election.'
Backbencher Richard Burgon said the 'blame for defeat lies squarely with Keir Starmer and his clique'
As well as pitching themselves as the best anti-Reform option in the by-election, the Greens also attempted to appeal to the significant Muslim vote in Gorton and Denton by hammering Sir Keir and Labour over Gaza.
The seat is sharply divided in ethnicity, religion and deprivation - which made the outcome incredibly difficult to predict.
Responding to her party's defeat, Labour chairwoman Anna Turley said: 'This result is clearly disappointing.
'By-elections are normally difficult for the party of government, and this election was no different.
'We have had thousands of conversations over the last few weeks and we know the majority of voters here did not want the poisonous politics of Nigel Farage and Reform.
'We will continue to deliver a programme for Government that tackles the cost of living crisis families are facing, creates opportunities for young people and invests in our public services.
'The politics of anger and easy answers offered by the Greens and Reform won't deliver this.
'We will move forwards with a relentless focus on delivering the renewal communities across Britain want to see.'
A Conservative spokesman said: 'Keir Starmer has killed the Labour Party.
'In losing one of Labour's safest seats, in a constituency that has returned Labour MPs for almost a century, Starmer has shown he no longer commands the support of Labour voters and is now a lame duck leader.'
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claimed the Gorton and Denton by-election was 'a victory for sectarian voting and cheating'
A glum-looking Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell is pictured watching on as votes are counted in the Gorton and Denton by-election
Prior to the result being announced in the early hours of Friday, a furious row broke out over claims of 'high levels' of illegal 'family voting'.
Democracy Volunteers, who sent accredited observers across Gorton and Denton on Thursday, expressed fears about major breaches of electoral law.
Family voting is where a voter is accompanied by another person into or near polling booths with the intention of influencing their vote.
Tougher legislation, known as the Ballot Secrecy Act, was introduced in 2023 in a bid to clamp down on the practice.
It made it more clearly an offence for someone to accompany a voter to a polling booth or position themselves nearby with the intention of influencing a voter.
In a statement issued as polls closed on Thursday night, Democracy Volunteers said they had seen 'the highest levels of family voting at any election in our 10-year history of observing elections in the UK'.
But Manchester City Council insisted 'no such issues have been reported'.
Labour chair Anna Turley said the reports of family voting were 'extremely worrying and concerning'.
Mr Farage said it 'raises serious questions about the integrity of the democratic process in predominantly Muslim areas'.
Mr Polanski told BBC Newsnight: 'I think it's important that there's full transparency about the democratic process.
'And if the recommendation is that there should be an inquiry or further steps then yes I'd support that.'
Reform UK's by-election candidate Matthew Goodwin is also pictured arriving at the result declaration
A final photocall for Ms Stogia on Thursday saw her join forces with Ms Powell and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.
In pouring rain in Gorton as the campaign counted down to its final hours, the three stepped onto a campaign bus along with activists for a final round of door-knocking.
Mr Burnham said he was not 'sorry' he was not the by-election candidate himself, with his bid to contest the seat for Labour dramatically blocked by Sir Keir last month.
'No, we've got a brilliant candidate, and she hasn't put a foot wrong,' he said. 'She's been out every day. She's done us proud.'
The Greater Manchester mayor is widely seen as a potential leadership challenger to Sir Keir should he return to Westminster as an MP.
Mr Farage visited Gorton and Denton on Wednesday night, speaking to voters alongside Reform candidate Mr Goodwin.
Ahead of polls opening at 7am on Thursday, Mr Farage said: 'Our message on election day is clear.
'The Prime Minister is panicking and knows he has broken his promises to the British people. Vote Reform to ditch Starmer.'
The PM made a token visit to the constituency on Monday but was humiliatingly kept away from ordinary voters amid dire poll ratings.
The premier barely survived a leadership coup a fortnight ago, with the Cabinet only rallying round at the last moment.
In his final message to voters, Sir Keir sought to woo wavering Labour voters by painting the contest as a straight fight between his party and Reform.
He said: 'The choice at today's by-election could not be more stark. Unity or division.
'Driving down the cost of living with Labour or driving a wedge between communities under Reform.
'Moving forwards together, or opening up anger and division that holds our country back.
'Reform's Matthew Goodwin thinks people who aren't white can't be English and wants women who choose not to have children to pay more tax.
'Vote Labour in Gorton and Denton today to send him and his toxic politics packing.'
The contest in Manchester had been beset by allegations of dirty tricks, with parties repeatedly referring each other's candidates to the police.
In the latest twist, the Greens accused Labour of handing out leaflets from an 'entirely fictitious' tactical voting organisation urging voters to back Sir Keir's party.
The leaflets from 'Tactical Choice' carried a supposed poll that put Labour and Reform neck-and-neck when 'not including polling funded by Green Party donors'.
They added: 'Based on a new prediction published in the last 24 hours we are recommending voting Labour.'
A Green Party spokesman said: 'In a final throw of desperation, Labour have made up an entirely fictitious organisation called 'Tactical Choice' referencing them on their final leaflet.
'They've had to make this up because every actual tactical voting organisation has endorsed the Green Party as the best hope to keep Reform out in this election.'
For its part, Labour accused the Greens of 'whipping up hatred' over Gaza in parts of the constituency with a large Muslim population.
The party even put out a campaign video in Urdu which featured images of David Lammy shaking hands with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ms Powell said the Green campaign had been 'characterised by misinformation, with dodgy bar charts'.
However, Labour put out a leaflet of its own with a bar chart showing it neck-and-neck with Reform – but omitting the Greens in the lead.
