Have the Greens just replaced Reform as Labour's main threat?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2026
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For all Labour's insistence that the Gorton and Denton by-election was a straight fight between them and Reform - the Greens demonstrated in Greater Manchester that they are now a fighting force on the radical Left of British politics, who present a new kind of challenge to Keir Starmer.
Hannah Spencer won convincingly, with Labour floundering in third place. Starmer visited the constituency earlier this week - a rare move for a Prime Minister not totally convinced of an imminent victory - so how much of this defeat lays squarely with him? And what does it mean for his party's direction of travel looking forward?
Matt Goodwin blamed "sectarianism" for Reform's shortcomings - and Kemi Badenoch accused Labour of creating a "monster of harvesting Muslim community bloc votes...that came back to bite them". That comes amid reports of 'family voting' - what has happened and is there really anything remarkable about religious groups being targeted in our political campaigning? Or is it a tale as old as our democracy?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:08.9 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:13.1 | Incumbent governments quite often get results like that midterm. |
| 0:16.7 | But I do understand that voters are frustrated, they're impatient for change. |
| 0:23.6 | And I came into politics, late in life as it happens, to fight for change for those people |
| 0:29.6 | who need it, the people who need an NHS that works for them, to be able to get a doctor's |
| 0:33.6 | appointment when they need it, to get the money they need in their pockets to pay |
| 0:37.5 | their bills and to have a decent and better life. And I will keep on fighting for those people for as long |
| 0:43.3 | as I've got breath in my body. That was Kirstama on last night's by election result. Bad, it was |
| 0:50.6 | awful. Disappointing, it was bloody shocking. And as for people feeling frustrated, they're furious. |
| 0:57.0 | In the pantheon of Labour horror stories, this is right up there with the worst of them. |
| 1:04.0 | Kirstama and Labour are now not only facing bleeding support to their right and reform, but now for the first time in a long time, |
| 1:13.1 | a credible threat to their left. Are we about to witness the Greens become a mainstream |
| 1:18.9 | force in British politics? Welcome to the newsagents. The News Agents. |
| 1:28.3 | It's John. It's Lewis. |
| 1:29.5 | And earlier in the week, we had reported a poll that suggested that the Greens, Labour and Reform were all absolutely neck and neck. |
| 1:38.3 | There was nothing to separate any of them. Well, the reality was rather different. |
| 1:44.0 | The Greens had an absolutely clear lead in |
| 1:47.9 | the safest of safe seats. And let's hear from their victor, Hannah Spencer. I didn't grow up |
| 1:55.0 | wanting to be a politician. I'm a plumber. And two weeks ago, during all this, I also qualified as a plasterer, |
| 2:03.7 | because even in chaos, even under pressure, I get things done. I am no different to every single |
| 2:11.4 | person here in this constituency. I work hard. That is what we do. Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. |
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