Keir Starmer vows to fight on despite humiliating Labour by-election defeat

Thursday’s by-election saw Hannah Spencer, a councillor and plumber, emerge victorious for the Greens with 14,980 votes — a majority of 4,402

British prime minister Keir Starmer in London on Friday, after the Green Party won the Gorton and Denton by-election. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Keir Starmer has vowed to “keep on fighting” despite Labour’s humiliating defeat in the Gorton and Denton by-election.

The British prime minister faces intense pressure to shift his party to the left or resign after Labour came third behind Zack Polanski’s Greens and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in the previously rock-solid Greater Manchester constituency.