Labour beg Polanski to stand down in Gorton & Denton

In an act of desperation, Labour deputy leader Lucy Power has asked the Green Party to stand down in Gorton & Denton:

This is staggering. @LucyMPowell writes to @ZackPolanski telling him to stand down @GreenPartyHan so Labour can win. Zack has a duty of care to Green Party members & voters, not to Labour. The arrogance from Lucy is staggering. Lucy give us something to vote for, that’s democracy pic.twitter.com/8vsKP5eP0X

— Cantona & Best (@bestcanton7) February 7, 2026

It’s an interesting tactic, but we’re not sure it will catch on.

Yours, Lucy

In the interest of transparency, here is Powell’s letter in full:

LUCY POWELL
DEPUTY LEADER OF THE LABOUR PARTY

Dear Zack,

I’m writing to you about the Gorton and Denton by-election and a number of misleading claims you and your party have made which may lead to Reform getting in through the back door – something I cannot stand by and let happen.

There is a lot at stake in this by-election which goes beyond the usual politics of who is up and who is down. For me, I am doing whatever I can to stop the nasty, divisive politics of Reform and Matt Goodwin getting a foothold and platform in my city. A city built on tolerance, openness and collectivism.

However, I fear you are being played by Reform and have a different agenda.

You know as well as I do, that the Green Party just doesn’t have the base or the breadth of support across the constituency to win the seat. The best you hope for is to take support from us to boost your profile nationally. This is exactly what Reform wants – it’s their only route to victory – split and suppress the long-standing Labour vote.

If just seven Green Party voters had backed Labour in Runcorn and Helsby, we wouldn’t now have a Reform MP in Parliament who made appalling comments about seeing too many Black and Asian people on TV. A Reform victory in Gorton and Denton would usher in an even more extreme candidate into Parliament.

What’s more, in seeking to push your agenda, you and your party have shared misleading election material and claims on social media.

Your bar charts would even make your former Lib Dem colleagues blush. The independent Full Fact organisation agreed, stating:

“The most recent projection from Election Maps UK for Gorton and Denton suggests the Greens will see the second largest increase in their vote share compared to the 2024 election, behind Reform UK. But it also suggests that Labour will still hold the seat.”

Your claims that respected academics Professor Rob Ford agrees with you are also not true. Prof Ford said that your latest leaflet is “misleading and out of context” and “that you have misrepresented his views”.

Your assertions do not reflect the reality on the ground. The evidence is clear. You have no councillors at all here. All of the councillors in Gorton and Denton were elected Labour, bar one.

Your briefings from doorstep to doorstep do not add up – which is extensive and more scientific – is clear: only we can beat Reform, your support is simply not anywhere near wide enough.

Labour has a strong Manchester Labour brand and organisation here, with Mayor Andy Burnham, the Labour Council and Labour Government delivering real change.

We all know what’s at stake here. Both Nigel Farage and his candidate in Gorton and Denton, Matt Goodwin, have talked repeatedly about immigration and the far right racist rhetoric in their campaigns. We need to defeat them.

This contest is bigger than you. It’s time that you stopped the bogus briefings and bar charts. The Greens can’t win here. If you really thought that, you would have stood here yourself (as someone from nearby).

Voters won’t forgive you and your disingenuous campaigning will come back to haunt you.

Only voting Labour’s Angeliki Stogia can prevent a Reform win. You and I both know that.

Yours sincerely,

Lucy Powell
MP for Manchester Central
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party

For further transparency, this is what polling says right now:

Interested to see an update poll, but polling is difficult in by elections.

One thing is clear, Labour can't win. https://t.co/jXbRJUrsbv

— Curtis Daly (@CurtisDaly_) February 7, 2026

We can imagine the above Labour supporters going Green to keep Reform out; it’s harder to imagine the Green’s returning to Labour given everything that Starmer & co have done, as we’ll get into.

Labour — step down, please

Lucy Powell is arguing that the Greens need to stand down, because they used an improper bar chart. The Labour Party at large, meanwhile, is dealing with the following scandal:

We all knew that Peter Mandelson kept a close relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein after his conviction.

Yet Keir Starmer appointed him US Ambassador and said he had “full confidence” in the bestie of a convicted nonce.

My full speech in Parliament: https://t.co/CwRcTpMUKe pic.twitter.com/et0ofls0qB

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) February 7, 2026

You can’t act like you’re the arbiters or good and moral behaviour when your man literally did the following:

Peter Mandelson sold Government secrets to foreign agents for personal profit.

He doesn't need to be thrown out of the House of Lords, he needs to be thrown in jail. pic.twitter.com/ruBKPtQ16U

— BladeoftheSun (@BladeoftheS) February 2, 2026

Seriously — who do these ghouls think they’re kidding?

Featured image via Barold