Nigel Farage warned the Gorton and Denton by-election was a “victory for sectarian voting and cheating”. Labour was pushed into third place in the former stronghold behind Zack Polanski’s party and Reform UK.
In a post on X, Reform leader Mr Farage sad: “This election was a victory for sectarian voting and cheating. Matt Goodwin was a great candidate for us. Roll on the elections on May 7th. It will be goodbye Starmer and goodbye to the Tory party.”
Concerns have been raised about people forcing family members to vote in a certain way in the contest.
Election observer group Democracy Volunteers warned it had witnessed “concerningly high levels” of family voting – an illegal practice where two voters use one polling booth and potentially direct each other on voting.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (Image: Getty)
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Meanwhile, the Greens faced accusations of sectarian politics by sharing campaign material in Urdu calling on voters to “punish” Labour over Gaza and with an image of Sir Keir Starmer shaking hands with Indian PM Narendra Modi.
Reform candidate Matt Goodwin said: “We are losing our country. A dangerous Muslim sectarianism has emerged.
“We have only one general election left to save Britain. Vote Reform every chance you get.
“I will continue the fight. I will always fight for you. I will stand at the next general election. Matt.”
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New Green MP Hannah Spencer hit out at her election rivals in a speech following her win.
She said: “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.”
Asked in a BBC interview about accusations of sectarianism and why the image of Sir Keir with Mr Modi was used, she said: “I’ve just been out every day talking to people, listening to people and when people weren’t able to access information in a way that other people might, we tried to give literature and information in a language they speak and I’m really proud we did that.”
A Greens spokesperson said: “This is an attempt to undermine the democratic result and is straight out of the Trump playbook.
“We’ve just won a historic by-election by a comfortable margin.
“We’ve shown the country that Greens can beat Reform, despite their big business donations.”
Nigel Farage Erupts at “Cheating” as Greens Win Gorton and Denton By-Election
Nigel Farage reacted angrily after Reform UK was defeated by the Green Party in the Gorton and Denton by-election, alleging that “sectarian voting and cheating” had contributed to the result and raising questions about the conduct of the poll.
The controversy began almost immediately after the result was declared on February 26, 2026. Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer won the Greater Manchester seat with 14,980 votes, securing 40.7 per cent of the vote and a majority of 4,402. Reform UK candidate Matt Goodwin finished second with 10,578 votes, while Labour came third with 9,364.
Farage subsequently said Reform had reported allegations concerning “family voting” to the police and Electoral Commission. The claims followed observations by Democracy Volunteers, an election-monitoring organisation, which said it had witnessed unusually high levels of family voting at polling stations.
The allegations generated an immediate political dispute. Reform argued that the reports raised legitimate questions about electoral integrity, while the Green Party rejected the accusations and said the scale of its victory demonstrated support across the constituency.
Importantly, allegations of improper voting were not the same as evidence that the election result had been manipulated. In March, Greater Manchester Police said it had found no evidence of criminality connected with the allegations.
A dramatic result for the Greens
The controversy unfolded against the backdrop of a remarkable electoral result.
Hannah Spencer’s victory represented the Green Party’s first parliamentary by-election win. She defeated Reform by 4,402 votes and pushed Labour, which had previously dominated the constituency, into third place.
The official result was:
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Vote share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hannah Spencer | Green Party | 14,980 | 40.7% |
| Matt Goodwin | Reform UK | 10,578 | 28.7% |
| Angeliki Stogia | Labour | 9,364 | 25.4% |
| Charlotte Cadden | Conservative | 706 | 1.9% |
| Jackie Pearcey | Liberal Democrats | 653 | 1.8% |
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats both finished below 2 per cent, while the remaining candidates received fewer than 200 votes each. Turnout was 47.62 per cent, with an electorate of 77,501.
For Reform, finishing second was nevertheless a substantial increase compared with the party’s performance at the 2024 general election. Its vote share rose from 14.1 per cent to 28.7 per cent.
But the Greens recorded the largest increase. Their vote share rose from 13.2 per cent in 2024 to 40.7 per cent in the by-election, while Labour’s share fell from 50.8 per cent to 25.4 per cent.
The result therefore represented a major three-way redistribution of support rather than a simple Labour-to-Reform transfer.
Farage’s “cheating” accusation
Farage’s response focused on reports of family voting.
After Reform finished second, he described the election as a “victory for sectarian voting and cheating” and said his party had reported cases of family voting to the Electoral Commission and police.
The allegation was serious because electoral law requires voters to cast their own ballots freely and independently.
Democracy Volunteers, which had observers present at polling stations, said it had seen what it described as “concerning high levels” of family voting. Sky News reported that observers saw such behaviour in 15 of the 22 polling stations they visited. The organisation said it observed 545 voters during its sample and identified 32 instances of family voting.
According to the organisation, the level it observed was the highest in its ten years of monitoring elections.
Those observations became the basis for a much broader political argument.
Farage said the allegations raised “serious questions about the integrity of the democratic process”, particularly in parts of the constituency with large Muslim populations. Reform subsequently referred the matter to the relevant authorities.
But the observations did not establish that the Green Party had organised or benefited from illegal voting, nor did they demonstrate that the alleged conduct had changed the outcome.
That distinction became central to the subsequent debate.
What is “family voting”?
The phrase “family voting” generally describes situations where more than one voter enters a polling booth together or where one person appears to influence another person’s vote.
Voting secretly and independently is an important principle of British elections.
However, an observation that family voting occurred does not by itself establish which candidate was supported or whether the practice affected the final result.
That was acknowledged even within Reform’s response.
According to ITV News, Reform chairman David Bull described the practice as illegal but, when asked whether it had made a difference to the result, said it “probably” had not.
That qualification was significant.
Spencer defeated Goodwin by 4,402 votes. The observers’ reported sample involved 32 instances of family voting, meaning there was no evidence from that observation alone that the number of questionable incidents could account for the winning margin.
The issue therefore involved two separate questions: whether electoral rules had been breached in individual cases, and whether any such breaches had materially affected the result.
The first question could be investigated by the authorities. The second required considerably more evidence.
The Green Party rejects the allegations
The Green Party strongly rejected the suggestion that its victory resulted from improper voting.
A party spokesman argued that the Greens had gained substantial support across the constituency and among different groups of voters.
The party said its campaign had focused on issues including household costs, public services, the NHS, peace and human rights.
The result itself provided some support for the argument that the Green vote was not confined to one part of the constituency.
Spencer received 14,980 votes, more than 4,400 ahead of Reform and more than 5,600 ahead of Labour. The official figures do not identify how individual communities voted, so they cannot establish precisely how different demographic groups contributed to the result.
The Greens therefore maintained that the result reflected a broad electoral coalition rather than a single demographic bloc.
Police investigate the allegations
The allegations were referred to Greater Manchester Police.
Immediately after the election, the force confirmed that it had received a report and said officers were reviewing the information.
The Electoral Commission also confirmed that it had received correspondence from Farage. However, the Commission pointed out that it does not directly investigate allegations of electoral fraud; such criminal investigations are a matter for the police.
The subsequent investigation became important because the political controversy had already grown significantly.
On March 27, the Guardian reported that Greater Manchester Police had found no evidence of criminality in the Gorton and Denton by-election. The investigation followed Reform’s request for police scrutiny of the allegations.
That finding did not mean that the observers’ concerns were fabricated. It meant that the police did not find evidence establishing criminal conduct in the material they investigated.
This distinction is particularly important in discussions about electoral integrity.
An observation can justify scrutiny without proving that a criminal offence occurred.
Reform’s wider concerns
For Farage and Reform, the Gorton and Denton controversy was part of a broader political argument about Britain’s electoral system and immigration-related divisions.
The party had campaigned heavily on concerns about immigration and what it described as cultural and political divisions.
Goodwin also argued after the election that progressive voters had coordinated their choices to prevent Reform from winning. Other reporting suggested tactical voting may have played a role in the result, although the precise scale of any such coordination cannot be established from the final vote totals alone.
The possibility of tactical voting is important because Gorton and Denton was a three-way contest.
Labour had previously held a huge majority, but by the by-election the Greens and Reform had both established themselves as serious challengers.
Some Labour voters may have switched to the Greens. Some voters may have supported Reform. Others may have remained loyal to their preferred party.
The final result cannot reveal the individual motivations behind each ballot.
Reform’s strong performance despite defeat
Although Farage was angry about the allegations, the raw numbers showed that Reform had made significant gains.
Goodwin received 10,578 votes.
That was more than double Reform’s 2024 vote share.
The party therefore emerged from the contest with a substantially stronger position in Gorton and Denton than it had held two years earlier.
The difficulty for Reform was that the Greens grew even faster.
The Green vote increased by more than 27 percentage points compared with 2024, while Reform increased by 14.6 points.
Consequently, Reform’s improvement was not enough to secure victory.
That makes the result more complicated than a simple defeat for one party.
Reform demonstrated increased support, Labour suffered a major decline, and the Greens converted their increased support into a parliamentary victory.
A wider argument over tactical voting
The election also reignited debate over whether tactical voting is becoming increasingly important in Britain’s multi-party system.
Under Britain’s first-past-the-post system, voters sometimes consider not only which party they prefer but which candidate they believe has the strongest chance of winning.
Supporters of tactical voting describe it as a normal feature of electoral competition.
Critics argue that it can encourage voters to abandon their preferred candidate and create complicated strategic alliances.
In Gorton and Denton, the presence of three competitive parties created particularly strong incentives for strategic voting.
Some reporting suggested voters opposed to Reform may have concentrated behind the Green candidate because she was perceived as the strongest challenger.
However, the official result alone cannot determine how many voters acted tactically.
The significance of the result
The controversy surrounding Farage’s claims should not obscure the wider significance of the election.
The Greens won a constituency that Labour had held for generations.
Reform came second.
Labour fell to third.
The official result was therefore a substantial change in the political map of Greater Manchester.
For the Greens, the victory established Hannah Spencer as the party’s first MP elected through a Westminster by-election.
For Reform, the result demonstrated significant growth in support but also highlighted the difficulty of converting that support into seats when opponents can consolidate around another challenger.
For Labour, the defeat demonstrated the pressure it faced from both sides of the political spectrum.
From election-night anger to an evidence-based conclusion
Farage’s claim that the result was a “victory for sectarian voting and cheating” became one of the defining political reactions to the election.
The allegations of family voting were serious enough to be reported to the authorities, and Democracy Volunteers did report observing unusually high levels of the practice.
But the subsequent police finding is equally important.
Greater Manchester Police found no evidence of criminality in the by-election.
That means the controversy should be separated into three distinct facts.
First, Reform lost the election to the Greens.
Second, election observers reported instances of family voting and the allegations were referred to the relevant authorities.
Third, the police investigation did not find evidence of criminality.
The available evidence therefore does not establish that cheating caused Reform’s defeat.
The election result remains the official outcome: Hannah Spencer won with 14,980 votes, Matt Goodwin finished second with 10,578, and Labour’s Angeliki Stogia came third with 9,364.
The political arguments surrounding the contest are likely to continue, particularly as Britain enters another period of intense competition between Labour, Reform and the Greens.
But the Gorton and Denton story ultimately illustrates the importance of distinguishing between an allegation, an investigation and an established finding.
Farage’s anger became part of the political aftermath. The official count, however, remains unchanged.