Dancing to She’s Electric and waving banners from a bus, Labour make one final push to stop the unthinkable

As ‘She’s Electric’ blared from an open top bus, Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell started dancing to gee her up activists one final time. It’s the Labour Party’s last day of campaigning ahead of the Gorton and Denton by-election, and the mood has been surprisingly jolly.

The unexpected dance moves inspired some well-choreographed sign waving amongst the party faithful in Rushford Park, who continued the fanfare once their candidate, Angeliki Stogia, was safely onboard their battle bus with ex-leader and big hitter Ed Miliband.

That bus then wound its way through the constituency, turning heads on Levenshulme’s high street. This was Labour’s final stunt in its push to retain power in a corner of Greater Manchester they have always held. 

But that bid looks seriously under threat. Challenges from Reform UK and the Green Party mean it’s now a dead-heat three horse race on the eve of polling day.

“I’m gonna vote Reform,” said Liam Kendrick in Burnage a few hours later. Why? “I want the boats stopped. It’s just about everything here and immigration.”

In Levenshulme, one 20-something voter simply said ‘Greens’ when the Local Democracy Reporting Service asked who he would back. And another man, 66, said he was sticking with Labour because they ‘deliver’. He added: “My MP has surgeries and is here in the community. He is listening to people and their concerns about immigration.”

Labour losing here is something that was unthinkable when Andrew Gwynne won by a landslide in the general election 18 months ago. 

A lot has happened since then, most importantly Gwynne’s suspension for the Trigger Me Timbers WhatsApp scandal. Leaked messages from the ‘Trigger Me Timbers’ WhatsApp group, which contained the MP and councillors representing wards in his old Denton and Reddish seat showed Gwynne allegedly made anti-Semitic slights and joked about a pensioner dying before an election after she raised concerns about bin collections.

He was sacked as a minister and suspended from the party, along with a host of other councillors and another MP, some of whom were expelled, while others reinstated.

The scandal has damaged voters’ trust in Labour, and been used by opposition parties as a stick to beat them with. At the same time, Labour’s polling numbers have taken the usual nosedive after getting into government, with Reform and the Greens surging in popularity as a result. 

And yet, Labour is quietly confident it can still pull off a shock here. The LDRS understands the party’s internal data shows it can win the constituency. That being said, the Greens and Reform would likely tell you something similar, so all three’s claims of impending victory should be treated with caution.

The fact that it’s too close to call has only increased interest in the by-election, putting Gorton and Denton in the eye of a media storm.

Polls open tomorrow morning, and close at 10pm. By the early hours of Friday, that storm should have passed with a winner declared. 

Some will be ‘sad’ if their chosen candidate doesn’t win. A few will be pleased they backed the winner.

But just want the storm to pass, like one pensioner who spoke to the LDRS to complain about the amount of literature and door knocks she’s had in Gorton.

“It’s been like torture,” said the 73-year-old. “Not last weekend, the weekend before, we must’ve had 30 leaflets or door knocks. Some of them will not take no for an answer.

“I think everybody has been. It’s like a swarm of locusts.”