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Labour has indicated it is on course to lose the Gorton and Denton by-election to the left-wing Green Party, dealing a severe blow to UK prime minister Keir Starmer.
“We think the Greens have won,” said one senior Labour MP.
The party has been locked in a bitter three-way fight with two populist parties, the left-wing Greens and right-wing Reform, in what had for nearly a century been a Labour stronghold.
Voters went to the polls on Thursday.
With counting yet to be completed, in the early hours of Friday, deputy leader Lucy Powell said that voters had been seeking to keep out Reform UK.
“What is really clear is that there is a big majority in this constituency that hasn’t voted for Reform, and on the day, the Greens have managed to win the argument that they were best placed to do that,” she told Sky News.
She did not indicate whether she believed Labour had come second or third in the race.
However Labour figures believe their party is on course for a “significant” defeat to the Green Party, according to another MP, after a campaign in which the Greens sought to present themselves as the “stop Reform” choice.
Results are expected at between 3am and 4am.
This is a developing story