Sawt Falasteen - Starmer vows to take fight to rivals after 'seismic' UK Labour heartlands loss

The embattled centrist leader called the humiliating third-place finish -- behind the victorious leftist Greens and anti-immigration Reform UK party -- in Thursday's by-election for the Manchester parliamentary seat "disappointing".

Coming just weeks after defying calls within his own party to resign after a string of policy U-turns, missteps, and fall-out related choosing an ambassador to the US linked to Jeffrey Epstein, Starmer vowed to "keep on fighting" while acknowledging voters were "frustrated".

The result in the constituency of Gorton and Denton that Labour has dominated for decades, shows how the centre-left party is being squeezed by both ends of the political spectrum and the country's traditional two-party system is fracturing.

It also suggests that Britons are looking more towards insurgent parties for answers on long-standing, hot-button issues like the high cost of living and irregular immigration.

In his first public comments following the contest, Starmer hit out at Reform and the Greens, branding the hard-right party the "politics of hatred and division" while deriding the Greens' left-wing policy agenda.

"They are the extremes in politics," he told broadcasters, adding the two parties can only "identify the grievances".

- 'Threat' -

Hannah Spencer, a 34-year-old plumber, won the Gorton and Denton seat comfortably to become the Greens' fifth sitting MP in the 650-seat British parliament.

Party leader Zack Polanski, a charismatic figurehead some liken to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani who only took charge of the Greens last September, called it a "seismic" victory.

"People now recognise there is an alternative," he told a press conference Friday.

The contest was triggered by ex-lawmaker Andrew Gwynne resigning on health grounds.

Labour had won the constituency easily in its July 2024 general election in a landslide that swept Starmer to power and ousted the Conservatives after 14 years in office.

But less than two years later, polls suggest Starmer is the most unpopular British prime minister since surveys began.

His most recent crisis centred on his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, an associate of late US sex offender Epstein, as Britain's ambassador to Washington, before sacking him within six months.

The next general election is not expected until 2029, but Thursday's defeat will intensify pressure on Starmer ahead of May local elections, when the party is predicted to also perform poorly.

University of Manchester politics lecturer Louise Thompson said it showed he must now "fight a war on two fronts".

"Whereas previously he's focused in a much more laser-like way on Reform... Labour will need to take the Green threat much more seriously," she told AFP.

- 'Values' -

The Greens had never won a parliamentary by-election before, and ran a grassroots campaign that sought to mobilise the constituency's 28 percent Muslim population.

The party, which under Polanski has embraced a full-throated left-wing agenda including higher taxes on the wealthy, is avowedly pro-Palestinian.

In a likely harbinger for upcoming elections, its campaign was less focused on environmental concerns -- the party's traditional rallying cry -- and more concerned with cost-of-living pressures and other issues.

The result was a blow for Brexit champion Nigel Farage, whose hard-right Reform party has led national polls for the past year. He called it "a victory for sectarian voting".

"Roll on the (local) elections on May 7th," Farage added. "It will be goodbye Starmer and goodbye to the Tory party."

Starmer has spent much of his time in office targeting Reform, in particular by toughening Labour's immigration policies and rhetoric.

But the stance appears to be alienating elements of Labour's left-wing base and young people.

Andrea Egan, the new leftist leader of the traditionally Labour-supporting UNISON union, said the Greens had won "because Labour under Starmer has abandoned progressive values, imitating the far-right instead of taking the fight to them".

"If the government wants to survive it urgently needs to stand up for workers and defend the fundamental values of our movement," she added on X.

W.Mansour--SF-PST