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18-02-2026
MANCHESTER: Usman Khan stands behind his counter, rows of colorful vapes lined up in neat rows behind him. Outside, a biting wind blows down Denton High Street. Khan moved to Denton from nearby Gorton not long ago. Now, he’s one of the 80,000 locals who have been thrust into the centre of the fight for the future of British politics as they prepare to head to the polls this month.
These Manchester suburbs have become a microcosm of the wider story of modern British politics: Support for the centrist parties of Labour and the Conservatives is collapsing while emergent left and right-wing parties are surging in the polls. What happens in the February 26 parliamentary by-election in the highly diverse constituency of Gorton and Denton will reverberate all the way to Westminster and analysts have said it’s the local Muslim vote holding the cards but for now, neither Khan nor anyone else can say what the citizens of Denton and Gorton will decide.
The bookmaker’s odds, often one of the more reliable measures, show the contest to be incredibly close, with the left-wing Greens just edging out the competition. Though this is far from assured.
That confusion is replicated in national polls. The UK’s ruling Labour Party, after winning a landslide victory in 2024, is in sharp decline after a series of U-turns and scandals. Labour’s traditional opposition, the Conservatives, still carry the baggage of years of political chaos from their time in power and are struggling in both local and national polls. The political opposites of the Green Party and the right-wing Reform UK are benefitting from the collapse of the centre.
In Gorton and Denton, “it’s a tough, tough fight between Labour and Reform,” Khan told media. “The Greens will cut the Labour vote, I think.”
For the Greens, this election is a chance to build on their momentum in the polls.
“A win in Gorton and Denton would show that Greens can win everywhere in this country,” Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer told media.
Labour is framing itself as the only viable alternative to the anti-immigration Reform party: “There’s a lot at stake in this election. It’s a choice between unity and division,” Labour candidate Stogia told media, arguing that voting Green would benefit Reform.
The local Labour Party has had its problems, though. The vote to elect a new MP in the area was triggered by the resignation of the sitting Labour MP, Andrew Gwynne, who cited health grounds, but his resignation followed quickly upon his alleged involvement in a scandal of the local Labour Party’s making this year. Labour then blocked the candidacy of the widely popular Manchester mayor and potential rival for the top job, Andy Burnham.
That series of events is seen by some here as building on a pattern of weakness that has undermined Labour while giving space to Spencer and Reform’s Matthew Goodwin. Burnham is popular, Khan conceded, but in Denton, with the left-wing vote divided between Labour and the Greens, it is Reform that is doing much of the running.
Goodwin is a former academic and right-wing commentator whose views on race have alienated many in this notably multicultural area of Manchester.
“To be very honest, Reform is popular, but I would say that the Reform candidate is not popular,” Khan explained, stressing the importance to voters of connections to the area that they will be elected to represent. “He’s not a Denton guy,” Khan said.
For Conservative voters, such as 58-year-old support worker Susan from Gorton, who did not provide her surname, the chaos of the last Conservative administrations means a vote for Reform. For others, such as 57-year-old Henry Iyoha, a former council officer originally from Nigeria who now runs a stall in the indoor market in Gorton, years of Conservative rule mean sticking with Labour, whatever his misgivings over the party leader or policies. (Int’l News Desk)
