Badenoch says Starmer has lost authority for good (Image: Getty)
Sir Keir Starmer is “finished” after Labour was humiliated into third place in a by-election, Kemi Badenoch has declared. The Conservative leader savaged the Prime Minister after Labour was pummelled into third place in Gorton and Denton, behind the Greens and Reform UK.
Hannah Spencer made history by becoming the first Green MP elected in a by-election, with Reform’s Matt Goodwin coming second and Labour’s Angeliki Stogia a distant third. Meanwhile Mrs Badenoch’s Conservative candidate – the former police officer Charlotte Cadden – secured just 2% of the vote.
In a staggering broadside against the Prime Minister, Mrs Badenoch said: “This result shows Keir Starmer‘s premiership is finished. He lost authority a long time ago, a mere hostage at the mercy of a divided Labour Party that cannot decide who to replace him with.”
Sir Keir, speaking to the media this morning, defended his candidate, saying she was “excellent” and “absolutely rooted in her community”. He slammed the Green Party, saying they wanted to “tear our country apart”.
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But the Prime Minister faced sustained attack from the Conservatives today, with Mrs Badenoch saying he had lost the support of voters, MPs and the country. She said: “If he had any integrity, he would go.” Following allegations of family voting, an illegal practice where family members enter the polling booth together, the Tory leader accused Labour of “creating the monster” of identity politics that came back to bite them.”
She even accused the Labour Party of stirring up “grievance politics between groups based on religion or race”, saying Sir Keir’s party had done so “for decades”. Taking aim at Reform UK, the Tory leader said Mr Farage’s party was now seeking to do the same, and that the Greens had done so “successfully in this by-election”.
“You are pitting neighbours against each other,” she blasted. Matthew Goodwin, the Reform candidate, has himself claimed the result represented “the emergence of a dangerous sectarianism in British politics”.
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Spencer makes history as first Green by-election win (Image: Getty)
Mrs Badenoch warned such tactics would “unravel the culture of tolerance that makes Britain great”. She took aim at all three winning parties, saying: “Our country is not broken, but this by-election showed that Labour, Reform and the Greens are trying very hard to break it.”
The Conservative leader accused Labour of “trying to buy people off with more and more benefits spending”, claimed Reform was “telling people you can’t be British if you aren’t white”, and blasted the Greens for “running a nasty, sectarian campaign while simultaneously wanting to legalise crack-cocaine.”
Mrs Badenoch insisted the election “was not about who would be the best MP” and praised her own candidate. “There was only one sensible candidate standing in Gorton and Denton, and that was Charlotte Cadden, a former Deputy Chief Inspector, a mother, a woman who fought for single sex spaces and dignity for women and girls,” she said.
She added: “While the other parties race to the bottom, Charlotte embodies the new Conservative Party.” Mrs Badenoch declared: “We are a multiracial country, not a multicultural country.”
The devastating result is a hammer blow to the Starmer Government, with Labour falling into third place amid the ongoing Lord Mandelson scandal. Earlier, the Prime Minister had blocked Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham from standing in the seat.