After the Green Party’s candidate Hannah Spencer, a plumber by trade, secured a resounding by-election victory in Gorton and Denton, she made an apology to some of her clients – she will have to cancel work.
The 34-year-old is heading to Westminster having overturned a significant Labour majority and relegating Sir Keir Starmer’s party to third place, behind Reform UK, in a seismic result.
She took the seat, a historic Labour stronghold, with 14,980 votes – a majority of 4,402 over Reform’s Matt Goodwin.
Ms Spencer describes herself as a “plumber and gas engineer, marathon runner, [and] housemate” to her four rescued greyhounds.
Observers say she has the easy charm of another Manchester politician, Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor blocked from standing in the election by Sir Keir.
She left school at 16 and became a plumber. But she also started this year with the ambition of “new year, new trade” – which was not, at that stage, the trade of politics. Instead, she returned to college to start a plastering course. Within weeks, however, she was combining her training with fighting the by-election.
This is not Ms Spencer’s first foray into politics. She was the leader of the Green Party group on Trafford Council, and came fourth in the 2024 Greater Manchester mayoral election, which was won by Mr Burnham.
In an emotional victory speech, Ms Spencer reflected on her background: “I didn’t grow up wanting to be a politician. I am a plumber. I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That is what we do.
“Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades, because working hard used to get me something.
“It got you a house, a nice life, holidays, it got you somewhere. But now, working hard, what does that get you?
“Because life has changed. Instead of working for a nice life, we’re working to line the pockets of billionaires. We are being bled dry. People in their thousands told me, on the doorstep and at the ballot box, that what we are sick of is being let down and looked down on. That we are sick of our hard work making other people rich.”
Ms Spencer also took aim at Nigel Farage’s Reform party.
She continued: “I won’t accept this victory tonight without calling out politicians and divisive figures who constantly scapegoat and blame our communities for all the problems in society. My Muslim friends and neighbours are just like me, human.”
She also praised her party’s “hopeful campaign” and said “we have shown that we don't have to accept being turned against each other”.
She added: “We defeated the parties of billionaire donors. Because this is Manchester. We do things differently here.”
And she apologised to customers who had made appointments for plumbing jobs, joking: “I think I might have to cancel the work that you had booked in, because I’m heading to parliament.”
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