Gorton and Denton is ‘straight fight’ between Labour and Reform, says Starmer

Labour is the only party that can beat Reform UK in the Gorton and Denton by-election, Sir Keir Starmer has insisted.

Since the resignation of former MP Andrew Gwynne last week, speculation has mounted that Reform could win the seat Labour retained with 51% of the vote in 2024.

The Greens, meanwhile, have sought to portray themselves as the main option for voters wanting to stop Reform as leader Zack Polanski seeks to supplant Labour.

But ahead of his visit to Beijing, Sir Keir told reporters that Labour remained the best way to stop Nigel Farage’s party gaining another MP.

He said: “There’s only one party that can stop Reform and that’s the Labour Party.

“And we can already see what the by-election’s going to be about, which is Labour values – which are about delivering, focusing on the cost of living, with a strong record in that constituency of what we’ve already done – versus Reform.”

Sir Keir also hit out at Reform’s candidate, Matthew Goodwin, saying he showed the party would bring a politics of “toxic division” to the contest.

He said: “That’s not what that constituency is about, that’s not what Manchester is about. So this is a straight fight between Labour and Reform.”

The Labour Party has meanwhile rejected that a video it posted of Mr Goodwin is misleading, saying he has “long had a disdain” for the North.

The GB News presenter said he was referring to the Tory Party conference in the video when he said he was “unfortunate enough” to have been in Manchester a few days earlier.

Mr Goodwin posted on X that the video was “misleading”.

“I was referring to the dying Tory Party conference that was held in Manchester – as you know.”

A Labour campaign spokesperson said: “Matt Goodwin and Reform have long had a disdain for Manchester and the North.

“The only people being misleading here are the Greens, pretending they have any chance of winning.

“Only Labour can take on Goodwin and Farage’s toxic politics and reject their shameless, divisive rhetoric that is not what our city stands for.”

Meanwhile, Sir Keir denied claims that Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham had been told he would be barred from standing for the seat if he applied, something Mr Burnham has also denied.

He said he had spoken to Mr Burnham himself on both Monday and Tuesday after Labour’s National Executive Committee denied him permission to contest the by-election.

And he praised Mr Burnham as an “excellent” mayor leading one of the UK’s “flagship devolution stories”.

He added that he thought the mayor “would say that working with this government has been so much better than working with previous governments”, pointing to cooperation on the Manchester synagogue attack and Northern Powerhouse Rail.

But asked whether he would welcome Mr Burnham’s return to Westminster once his mayoral term ended, Sir Keir said: “That’s a matter for Andy.

“He did a really good job in Parliament.

“My first job was working for Andy when I came in in 2015. I wanted to work for him, he wanted me to work for him, and we got through some really tricky legislation together and worked really well together, I supported his leadership campaign.”

Labour currently finds itself divided over the decision to block Greater Manchester mayor Mr Burnham from standing in the by-election.

Some 50 MPs and peers have signed a letter insisting there was “no legitimate reason” for the move, made by a 10-member strong group of the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC), including Sir Keir.

But Communities Secretary Steve Reed has insisted the decision is “done and dusted”.

Labour is undergoing a selection process to choose its candidate for the constituency.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir’s former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner reportedly said Labour’s leadership should “do better” in remarks at a private fundraising dinner last week.

According to the Times, Ms Rayner said Labour “should be humble enough to accept when we’ve made mistakes”.

She added: “We should do better, and we should do more.”

The former Cabinet minister said she wanted to help Labour do battle with Reform, and in a signal she hopes to return to frontline politics, added: “And I’m still fighting. I’m not dead yet.”

Some 80 MPs are prepared to back Ms Rayner in a leadership contest, should one occur after May’s elections, her allies told the Times.