Labour‘s Gorton and Denton by-election loss will “make life for Keir Starmer even worse”, a top pollster has warned. Professor Sir John Curtice said the result was a surprise due to the scale of the Green Party’s victory.

Hannah Spencer took 14,980 votes, with Reform UK second on 10,578 and Labour trailing behind in third with 9,364. Sir John told the BBC: “In the end there was a surprise and the surprise is the scale of the Greens’ victory.

“They have actually managed to win nearly 41% of the votes cast in this constituency, they have a 12-point lead over Reform.

“So rather than being this narrow contest we thought perhaps somebody might win with a relatively low share of the vote, the Greens have well and truly won this constituency and getting the kind of share of the vote that we thought was getting difficult in our fragmented politics.

“The truth is that the Greens have to be congratulated on what is quite a remarkable performance.

“That of course does simply make life for Keir Starmer even worse.

“It’s not just that Labour have lost, they’ve lost badly, they trail the Greens by 15 points, Labour themselves running in third place.

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“I think the idea that perhaps we were hearing from the deputy Labour leader that the Greens can’t really pose that much threat over Labour more broadly beyond this constituency, I think it’s going to be time for Labour to rethink this because the Greens here at least have demonstrated a remarkable ability to get a substantial section of this constituency.”

Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley described the result as “clearly disappointing”.

She said: “By-elections are normally difficult for the party of government, and this election was no different.”

She added that “the politics of anger and easy answers offered by the Greens and Reform” would not tackle the cost-of-living crisis, create opportunities for young people or invest in public services.