'Fear of serious challenge' from Green Party in Nottingham after by-election win
Hannah Spencer won the seat in Gorton and Denton
There is a ‘fear of a serious challenge’ from the Green Party in Nottingham after its historic win in Gorton and Denton – as the city’s only Green councillor calls the victory a ‘game-changer’.
Hannah Spencer not only secured her place as the constituency’s MP, she also made history as the Green Party’s first every candidate to win a parliamentary by-election.
She won 40.7 percent, or 14,980 votes, compared to Reform’s 28.7 percent, or 10,578 votes.
Labour – which had not lost an election in the area since 1931 – came in third with 25.4 percent, or 9,364 votes.
In Nottingham city, the Green Party has one councillor in Shuguftah Quddoos, a former Labour councillor, and Sheriff of Nottingham, who defected in March 2023.
Her defection came in response to ‘devastating’ budget cuts in the city, and a feeling Keir Starmer’s Labour Party no longer stood for her values.
Cllr Quddoos, who represents the Berridge ward, travelled up to Manchester and arrived at midday on the day polls opened on Thursday (February 26).
She returned to campaign on her home turf of Levenshulme, where she was born, as well as Burnage, where she also lived for a time, in Gorton and Denton.
Later she moved to Nottingham for university at the age of 18.
She described the Green victory as a “game-changer” – and one that could have implications beyond the bounds of Manchester.
“I have done a number of elections, this was a very well-oiled machine,” she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS)
“There were hundreds and hundreds of volunteers.
“We all knew as members that it was a game-changer. It wasn’t just about Gorton and Denton, we all put ourselves out there and said these are our policy platforms, unashamedly socialist, unashamedly on the left.
“People are hungry for radical change, that’s why they are voting Reform, and that’s why we have to offer them something else.”
The Muslim and working-class vote has been cited as one of the reasons for the Green Party’s success.
According to the 2021 census, there were 44,258 Christians in Gorton and Denton, and 31, 980 Muslims.
Some constituencies in Nottingham have a similar demographic.
For example, in Nottingham East, there were 39,409 Christians, and 20,601 Muslims.
In the same constituency, the Green Party came second in the 2024 General Election, which could point to it becoming a battleground in the future.
The same census shows 43 percent of the population of the entire city as being from ethnic minority groups – an increase from 35 percent in 2011 and 19 percent in 2001.
“The demographics of Nottingham are very similar to those of Gorton and Denton,” Cllr Quddoos said.
“I think it is a game-changer for all those safe Labour seats, both for MPs and councillors. They are going to be waking up today scared.
“If we can win Gorton and Denton, and the demographics are the same, we can win Nottingham.
“The game-changer for us is for ordinary people a Green vote is no longer a wasted vote, and if people can believe voting for us will bring people who care about the city, and a platform of policies and radical change, because that is what Reform is offering, so we have to offer that too.
“If we can do that in the city, we can replicate Gorton and Denton.
“Everyone who is in a safe Labour-led council, or safe Labour constituency, should be concerned.”
A Labour source in the city said there was legitimate cause for concern that “has been discussed for some time”.
They said there was “a fear among some in Labour that there could be a serious challenge” ahead of the local council election in 2027.
Nottingham has been a Labour stronghold for decades, with three Labour MPs and a strong majority on Nottingham City Council.
However, Cllr Quddoos’s defection was later followed by a number of other Labour councillors in October last year, who quit to form the new, left-wing, socialist Nottingham People’s Alliance.
Councillors Kirsty L Jones, Imran Jalil, Anwar Khan, Naim Saqab Salim and Faith Gakanje-Ajala have formed the group alongside a sixth councillor, AJ Matsiko, who joined after resigning from the Labour Group in April.
“There is a double issue in the city because you have got the Nottingham People’s Alliance that has broken away,” the source told the LDRS.
“There is a coalition of groups now – to the left of Labour – that could coalesce around any particular candidate they could see as having a chance to beat Labour.
“Whether that coalesces in next year’s election isn’t clear. In theory it should do, but in practice what you’ve got are some very interesting personalities in Nottingham that might get in the way of that.
“I am well aware a lot of people – who used to be in and around the Labour Party – have joined the Greens, and that could give some particular emphasis to the challenges in places like Sherwood, Berridge, Sneinton, possibly Wollaton.”
However, there have been significant improvements to the city’s fortunes, with debt being reduced, Government commissioners leaving, and a budget that is being presented with £25 million of investment in services and a lower-than-maximum increase in council tax for the first time in 18 years.
This could prove a serious boon for Labour in the city.
“You should never underestimate Nottingham Labour have been a very powerful political force, and is one of those few organisations that knocks on doors every single week, and therefore they are regularly in touch with what people are saying on the doorstep,” the source added.
Under the Green Party’s new leader, Zack Polanski, it has seen its membership soar.
In Nottingham, numbers have risen fourfold from 500 to around 2,000 in around a year, and in the wider East Midlands, membership has soared from 4,000 to 12,000.