On the day that the results were announced, More in Common held three focus groups with Green, Labour and Reform to understand what drove the outcome and what it means for Britain’s changing politics.

The result of the Gorton and Denton by-election was unprecedented in British political history. It was the Green Party’s first win in any parliamentary by-election, and with Reform UK in second place, epitomised the dramatic fragmentation in British politics that has seen voters break away from the traditional mainstream parties.

The numbers are extraordinary, but they belie a wider trend in British politics. While it is easy to get caught up in the sheer size of the vote flows and shifts, the result was one driven by real people and their concerns.

More in Common convened three focus groups on Friday 27 February, the day the by-election results were announced.

By speaking to residents of the constituency themselves we are able to find out much more about why the result panned out the way it did, and what it might mean about the future of politics in Britain more generally.  

Extreme disillusionment with recent Governments is giving people few reasons to stick with the traditional mainstream

Many residents believe that the Labour they have seen in Government is not the one they elected. The sense that the Conservatives betrayed their trust in office, and now Labour has done the same is making people much more willing to support new or untested political parties. Traditional worries that new or smaller parties are unelectable, untested or might be too extreme are now secondary to the mood of ‘roll the dice politics’ – because few think that things can get much worse.

I didn't vote Green. I did vote Reform. I mean, none of them are winners, let's be honest. They've all got their drawbacks. Labour have just made an absolute arse of it. The Tories have made an arse of it. I thought I would try something new.

Jack, Personal Trainer, voted Reform

Cost of living as the main driver of disillusionment

Across all the groups, it was specifically Labour’s perceived lack of action on the cost of living that had eroded faith in the party. Matching polling which shows a record number (59 per cent) of the public now believe that the cost of living crisis will never end, residents in Gorton and Denton explained that they felt they were struggling as much as when Labour was elected and that too much of life felt unaffordable. Across the groups people were cutting back or missing out because they simply couldn’t afford to live their lives to the standard they had in the past.

We just don't seem to be any further forward from when the Conservatives were in, no one feels any better off. And as people have said earlier, the cost of living crisis is probably one of the biggest things for everybody, and we're all no different, we're no better off … one of the big things is the housing crisis that we've got. There's not enough houses to go around. There's a lot of people homeless. People are paying extortion at rents in private houses with private landlords. I think it's a big crisis that needs tackling

Sarah, Prison Officer, voted Green

Personalities matter

These voters all had strong views on the personalities involved in this by election context. In fact many of the participants  were more concerned with whether the candidate’s character was trustworthy, down-to-earth, and authentic than if their policy positions were in the right place. They wanted, above all else, to have someone who was hardworking and understood their problems. In that regard, Andy Burnham was the most popular politician across the groups, with both Reform voters and Green voters. Hannah Spencer was very popular with some voters, and her ‘ordinary appeal’ was clearly a driver for those who voted Green.  In contrast, voters almost uniformly found Starmer personally unlikeable, even those who stuck with Labour were unenthusiastic about the Prime Minister.  Labour and Green voters were very concerned about Matt Goodwin and Nigel Farage, whereas the Reform voters we spoke to tended to like Farage but most had not heard of Goodwin.

I’m really happy for Hannah. And the way she comes across, she's an amazing lady.

Zain, Cardiologist, voted Green

Division and trust in politics

Across all three groups, one of the most striking and consistent themes was a deep unease about the state of political discourse in Britain today. Voters were not only disenchanted with specific parties or politicians,  they were troubled by what politics itself has become. Many felt that political debate had grown nastier, more tribal, and harder to follow,  and there was a strong sense that this division is not accidental but is being actively stoked, leaving voters feeling confused about who to trust and exhausted by the noise.

This is part of a broader pattern in focus groups across the country: as well as  the political landscape fragmenting  and new parties competing for attention, politics is becoming simultaneously more polarised and more chaotic. Many Britons raise feelings of unease and that there is something bubbling below the surface that is setting the potential for a conflagration. 

It's the divisive nature of the politics of Reform, the sort of anti-Muslim rhetoric. It just makes you feel uncomfortable in Denton, Gorton, all these areas. We're very, very multicultural. People do get on. Communities live with each other quite happily. And I've gone to a school and my neighbours, we're going through Ramadan at the moment. My neighbours, Jackie, and other people we’ll share a dish with them. They'll bring us flowers at Eid … Everybody just wants to get on with each other. We don't want to be fighting and we don't want to be playing politics on colour of skin or where people have come from.

Ali, Taxi Driver, voted Labour