UK Labour party loses parliamentary seat to left-wing Greens

MANCHESTER, Feb 27 (AFP): Britain's ruling Labour party on Friday lost a crunch local poll in one of its traditional heartlands to the left-wing Greens, official results showed, adding to the woes of unpopular Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Green candidate Hannah Spencer won the by-election in the Manchester suburb of Gorton and Denton with almost 15,000 votes as Labour slumped to third place behind the hard-right Reform UK party, which finished second.
The loss of one of Labour's safest seats, in the biggest electoral test in almost a year, piles further pressure on Starmer to prove that he should keep his job following weeks of political turmoil and calls for him to resign.
The Green Party's Hannah Spencer won the contest for the vacant parliamentary seat of Gorton and Denton, with Nigel Farage's populist Reform UK party coming second, and Labour pushed into third place.