British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is now fighting a two-front war against the left-wing as much as the right-wing, if the results of an electoral by-election Thursday are anything to go by.
Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer secured an upset victory in the constituency of Gorton and Denton, a Labour stronghold. Worse than that, Labour didn’t even come in second place, as the party fell to third behind Nigel Farage‘s right-wing Reform U.K.
The upset, which reportedly kept Starmer up until the wee hours of the morning watching results pour in, is now forcing him to condemn the “extreme” policies of the Greens, such as total legalization of drug use and prostitution.
“We will continue to warn of the risk the Greens pose: the risk of extreme policies like legalizing all drugs and pulling out of NATO that most voters strongly reject, and the risk of splitting the progressive vote so that Reform come through the middle,” Starmer said in a letter to Labour MPs on Friday.
Green secured 41% of the vote in Gorton and Denton, followed by Reform with 29% and Labour at 25%.
“No longer can they try and scare people into saying they have to vote for something because they’re worried about the least-worst option,” Green Party leader Zack Polanski said.
They accomplished this feat via a confederation of special interest groups beyond their usual environmentalist contingency — in particular, the approximately 30% of voters in the constituency who are Muslim.
The Greens heavily catered to the growing Islamic population of Gorton and Denton with campaign materials distributed in Urdu, overtures in support of Palestinians, and the banging of war drums against conservative parties they called “Islamophobic.”
One campaign video emphasized images of Starmer with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Starmer is now warning that the Greens are “not the harmless environmentalists they pretend to be,” accusing them of welcoming “divisive, sectarian politics” into their party.
The prime minister admitted the results were “disappointing” for his party, but stuck to his playbook — promising to “fight against extremes in politics” on all sides who “want to tear our country apart.”
That other “extreme” that Starmer fears is Reform U.K., which has maintained a healthy lead in nationwide polls for months with a platform centered on deportations and remigration of foreign nationals.
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Reform U.K. candidate Matt Goodwin took solace in his second-place finish by relishing how he “embarrassed Labour in one of their strongest seats,” but concurred with Starmer’s fears that the Greens’ victory is the result of a “coalition of Islamists and woke progressives.”
Asked if he had considered resigning, he said: “I came into politics late in life to fight for change for those people who need it,” Starmer said to a reporter who asked if he was considering resignation. “I will keep on fighting for those people for as long as I’ve got breath in my body.”
Reform U.K. remains the front-runner in British public opinion polls with 26% support, followed by Labour and Conservatives tied for second place, with 18% each. The Greens are just below at 16%, followed by the Liberal Democrats at 13%.
