Many, including myself, predicted the Greens would win the Gorton and Denton by-election, and win it comfortably. Not only did they win it with a historic 26.4% swing from Labour and secure 40.7% of the vote, but they did so with a very comfortable majority of 4,402 votes. It was their first ever by-election win, achieving their highest vote share in a by-election, and Hannah Spencer became the Green Party’s first MP in the North of England.

By contrast, it is the Labour Party’s first loss in Gorton since 1931, and it was the seventh safest seat for them. Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives also recorded their worst ever by-election result and their lowest vote share at a by-election, losing their electoral deposit for the first time since 1962.

On the doorstep for the Greens, priorities included lowering people’s bills, safeguarding the NHS, and rebuilding public services. In her victory speech, Hannah Spencer highlighted her plumber credentials, voicing concerns about the current cost of living crisis and stating that many people were simply working to live and to line the pockets of billionaires. She had the most endorsements too, boasting support from the likes of Jeremy Corbyn, Zarah Sultana, activist Salma Yaqoob, and crucially the Muslim Vote pressure group.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski hailed it as a “seismic victory”, stating that his party had “torn the roof off British politics”. With the roof now firmly off and the political landscape left exposed to deal with the aftermath of this new storm, where do the other parties, and politics in general, currently stand? Both the Green Party and Reform, the latter at least ostensibly, seem set on redrawing the political map, but what does that map look like? It makes for some grim reading, but it is a reality we all have to contend with. Politics is rapidly changing before our eyes.

The Establishment Fallout

Reform’s Matt Goodwin immediately laid the blame at the feet of “Muslim sectarianism” for what was an obviously lacklustre campaign, arguing that the Green Party simply resorted to sectarian politics to get them over the line. This may be part of the picture, but it is certainly not the whole picture, far from it. Campaign adverts in Urdu, and the flying of Palestine and other foreign flags on the streets of Manchester, may have drawn some outrage online, but this obviously did not translate at the ballot box, which is what ultimately counts. Nigel Farage had an even weaker excuse, blaming “family voting”, playing right out of the Trumpian playbook, which is fitting considering their close orbit.

The key difference is that much of the Pakistani Muslim community concentrated in the Gorton area, who are the second largest ethnic group overall, turned out to vote, and the Green Party knew exactly who they were appealing to, like it or not. While we do not have a full ethnic breakdown of who voted exactly, prior to the by-election the Greens polled first among the ethnic minority community, with Labour in second. This follows voting trends among the foreign bloc, with many former Labour voters now flocking to the Green Party in droves. Where Labour flounders going forward, the Green Party will be there to mop up the discontent.

Among the White British population, which is still, as of the 2021 census, the majority in the constituency at 57%, Reform polled first by a significant margin. However, the Greens still polled second. That would mean many Brits even turned out for the Greens despite what they represent in terms of the party’s approach to immigration, or lack thereof, and future demographics. Immigration and the economy are the two biggest issues among the electorate right now. The Greens smartly tapped into the economic side and that was enough to see them over the line. They also ran a more effective and active campaign, with positive engagement from their teams, many of them locals who worked tirelessly to drive the message home.

We should not excuse Reform either, despite them achieving their second highest vote share at a by-election. The Denton area is still overwhelmingly White British at 90%, yet it is clear from the poor turnout that many simply stayed at home or felt they were not adequately represented. Why? The choice of flying Matt Goodwin in was a strange one to begin with, considering his past reputation as a GB News pundit and the perception of a posh southerner trying to appeal to the working classes. Reform itself has been undergoing something of an identity crisis lately, with Goodwin quite happy to play the sectarian game himself, happily posing with Sikhs and posting ill-advised Reform UK signage outside a halal restaurant next to a foreign nail salon.

In trying to appeal to everyone you in fact appeal to no one. Goodwin has since softened his own rhetoric when it comes to defining what the English or British even are, now echoing his leader’s view that it can simply be reduced to a feeling or the usual civic nonsense we have come to expect from the other parties. He had previously said that being born here does not necessarily make you British. If you do not know who your voters are and cannot even define them, how can you accurately represent them and their interests? Voting along ethnic and religious lines has now become a grim feature of our democracy due to the high levels of immigration. Is it time we did too?

Reform, like most of the establishment parties, is clearly losing sight of this and failing to adapt. They are trying desperately to keep a foot in all camps at all times, but this is impossible. Surface level talking points such as migrant hotels, taxpayers getting short-changed, and repeatedly beating the dead horse of the immigration issue obviously are not enough to win voters, no matter how important those issues are. A coherent, bold and holistic approach is needed to draw the majority who did not vote out of their malaise and discontent with the political system in general. The days of half measures are truly gone. The game has evolved now and the rules are changing.

The Green Party victory also put the wind up Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives, who grow increasingly irrelevant by the day, and who blamed the monster Labour created of “harvesting Muslim community bloc votes”. Badenoch accused the Greens of running a “nasty, sectarian campaign”. This is especially odd considering the Conservatives themselves played to the sectarian vote when they ran a campaign advert entirely in Hindi to convince the “British Indian” community to vote Conservative back in 2019. It is of course fine when they do it. The fact that these communities are large and significant enough that they need to be effectively pandered to, sometimes in their native tongue, is again a reflection of the grim state of our politics.

Badenoch has since gone on the offensive, attacking multiculturalism despite the fact that it was not only her party that accelerated it for 14 years, but also oversaw the largest levels of mass immigration into this country since records began. More people arrived in a single year, over 944,000, mostly from non-EU countries, than at any point in our entire history. The Conservatives’ bold approach to the sectarianism they helped create and promote? Simply better integration. So radical. It is a wonder no one thought of that before. Britain is a “multi-racial” society, she says, and it should not become a multicultural one. Both have in fact been imposed on us by successive governments since the late 1940s.

They have also pledged to put an end to identity politics of all kinds. This is just desperation, trying to save face. The Conservatives simply are a dying party, using their few remaining gasps of air to try to appear relevant and radical, but they are not. The British electorate will never forgive them for the state they left the country in after 14 years, and no amount of tough rhetoric will fool them again.

What Is the Alternative?

A recent YouGov poll has put the ascendant Greens in second place at 21%, just two percentage points behind Reform, overtaking Labour by a significant margin. With Reform itself now dropping in points, at odds with its more hard line membership, and morphing into the Tory party in real time with a teal rosette, what is left on the table for patriotic British people to rally behind?

Ben Habib’s Advance UK, seen as to the right of Reform, stood an impressive candidate in Nick Buckley, yet he still lost out to the Monster Raving Loony Party, securing an abysmal 154 votes. Advance have barely polled since their inception in mid 2025 and, despite having 10 councillors, an impressive 40,000 plus members, and some notable figures in the movement, they have barely made a splash on the political scene so far. They also have the added burden of the polarising reputation that a figure like Tommy Robinson brings with him.

Lately, Advance, and Habib in particular, seems more concerned with counter signalling to the newly formed Restore Britain to an obsessive degree. He recently branded the party “full tilt racist” to an Advance member and accused Rupert Lowe of being a “dictator” because he had not democratised his party, a party barely three weeks old and still finding its feet. Habib has also lately resorted to smearing the party by association with some of its more radical members, in a clear double standard that Dan Wootton exposed. The Advance UK leader initially offered Lowe the chance to merge their parties, but since its launch Restore has become a meteoric political force in its own right and on its own terms.

On Friday the 13th of last month, Rupert Lowe transitioned the former pressure group into a legitimate political party. Since then they have reached a record 100,000 plus members in just three weeks and are still growing. They are now polling a remarkable 7% according to Find Out Now, and their online engagement on X and Facebook seems to be attracting record views and attention. Many people who had never voted for or supported a political party before have now found a home in Restore Britain.

Are they the true, authentic right wing alternative to counter a resurgent Green Party? They certainly seem to have the momentum, if not yet the political infrastructure, to do so. Rupert Lowe is a rare breed in politics in that he is principled, consistent, unapologetic, and keeps his promises. His party may yet have the legs to go the distance when they eventually stand candidates. British nativists are crying out for true representation.

Is Restore Britain the answer, or simply another faction of the neoliberal right to overcome? It is far too early to say, but the British people desperately need a party that truly speaks to them and represents their concerns for once. The Green Party have drawn first blood, Labour are declining, the Tories are on life support, Reform seem content to play around in the doomed middle ground to cast the widest net, and the other milquetoast parties offer very little in terms of a viable way out of this mess.

After the fallout, where do the British people go from here?