‘Our own people hate us’: reality check for Labour as 13,000 majority vanishes

Labour could only pray for bad weather, hoping a wet Manchester would drive turnout down. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

From the outset of the Gorton and Denton byelection, Labour strategists were desperate to say the party was on course to win, but the trouncing at the hands of the Greens has made this look laughable in hindsight.

Hollie Ridley, Labour’s general secretary, sent a note to No 10 at the end of January saying it was “clearly a two-horse race” with Reform UK, and only 3% of voters were saying they would stick with the Greens.