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.
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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.
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
I think I feel a bit disillusioned with Labour altogether. I’m done with Labour for now. I need something new.
Esther, Assessment Officer, voted Green
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
I don't think they've handled the economy very well. Every day you go shopping, it's just the same amount of money buys less for you. Let's say four years ago, I didn't bother going to the yellow sticker side of things, but now I find myself in the last one, two years, I go to the yellow stickers first and then fill up, which wasn't something I felt, not that I was better than others, but I felt perhaps other people, because since I'm working, other people needed that. But now I'm like, nope, I'm going there. It's all man for himself kind of thing.
Hafsa, HR Officer, voted Labour
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 enthusiastic 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
I like the way (Farage) comes across. I think he answers questions really well. I think he's really good at making sure people hear what you want to hear. So I have a little bit of doubt around him because we've seen it when he was in charge of Brexit and stuff like that. If what he actually says gets put into place
Martin, Social worker, voted Reform
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
[I think it ends with] civil war, if [the Greens] get in, I absolutely think it will. … I don't know who's left or right now, but whatever side …, they just seem to polarise whatever Reform were saying to just go against them to get the votes because they knew there was this rhetoric of ‘we can gather the Muslim vote here because people are going to be against Reform’. We've got a massive Muslim area. It’s self-serving a lot of the time. So I think the policies are a lot of rubbish. The people, I wouldn't cross the street to help them. But again, I think that's true of most politicians, to be honest with you. I wouldn't help any of them.
Rob, Sports Therapist, voted Reform