Sheila Harrison, 69, has always voted Labour. Like most people in Denton, Greater Manchester, she said when it comes to elections, there has only been one choice.
But not anymore.
“I would pack Keir Starmer’s suitcase for him”, the 69-year-old tells The Independent on Manchester Road in Denton.
She says the beleaguered prime minister, currently fighting to save his premiership, “doesn’t understand the working class” and for the first time in her life she’s voting against Labour in this month’s crucial by-election.
Engulfed in crisis, Sir Keir survived his toughest day as prime minister on Monday. Ministers rallied around him after he faced calls to quit from his own party, amid the fallout from the Peter Mandelson scandal.
He will attempt to move on from Mandelson, but his handling of the saga has further threatened the future of a prime minister for whom popularity is at a premium just 19 months after he came to power.
In Gorton and Denton, where the by-election could deliver the final blow to Sir Keir’s time in Downing Street (if he survives until polling day on 26 February), disdain is palpable.
The seat was vacated by former Labour MP Andrew Gwynne, who retired on health grounds, a year after the ‘Trigger Me Timbers’ WhatsApp scandal cost him the party whip.
Labour now faces a perfect storm – a fight on both sides of the constituency.
That is expected to be against the Green Party in Gorton, made up of diverse south-eastern suburbs of the city of Manchester, and against Reform in post-industrial town Denton, found in the Greater Manchester borough of Tameside.
Both the Greens and Reform are appealing to disheartened former Labour voters like Sheila and John Harrison.
Retired pipe fitter John, 71, describes Britain as “broken”, viewing “immigration, kids with nothing to do, a lack of tidiness, lack of respect for police” as the biggest issues in Denton.
Contemplating voting for Reform, he tells The Independent that he feels let down by the government, accusing them of not delivering what was promised in their manifesto.
One change could win him back to the party, however.
“I would have voted for Andy Burnham”, he says. John sees Mr Burnham as having more personality and able to connect with northern voters – he believes the Metro Mayor is on his side in a way that that Sir Keir, who he describes as “aloof”, is not.
Sheila agrees – she too would have voted for the Merseyside-born Mr Burnham. “He’s a local, he’s a local man, whether he was from Liverpool, Manchester, whatever”, she says. “He stands for working class people.”
Mr Burnham, who has been Greater Manchester mayor since 2017, could have been on the ballot, but his application was blocked by Labour’s National Executive Committee amid fears he could challenge Sir Keir for leadership.
It may be a move that costs the party this seat.
Retired midwife Andrea Anwyl, 77, is another lifelong Labour supporter disillusioned with the government. She may now vote Green but says she “definitively” would have voted for Mr Burnham if he were the Labour candidate.
“I don’t like Starmer. I don’t like what he’s done”, she tells The Independent, standing in the largely empty Denton Civic Square, as few people mill between the shops which surround it.
“He promised to do this, this and this and got voted in for that. He’s not done them as far as I know.”
Clearly, many voters in the country’s 15th most deprived constituency feel let down by a party that they believe should represent areas like theirs.
Traditionally, all corners of the seat would be Labour strongholds. The party is defending a 13,000 majority, and says only its candidate, city councillor Angeliki Stogia, can beat Reform, represented by GB News presenter and former academic Matt Goodwin.
Stogia tells The Independent that it will take time for the government to deliver change, but agreed with Sir Keir’s verdict that it must “go faster and we need to go deeper.”
About her election chances, she “absolutely believes” Labour can beat Reform.
She says: “We’re fighting every door. We’ve got policies. We’re listening to residents on the ground and what they want, and what they want is real action. They don’t want shouting from the sidelines.”
The Green Party and their nominee – councillor and plumber Hannah Spencer – would not agree that only Labour can beat Reform.
On the aptly-named Greening Road in Levenshulme, on the Gorton side of the constituency, Green Party signs stand in several front gardens of its terraced houses. Shops along Mount Road, where the Greens have based their campaign office, display posters in support in their windows.
Outside one of them, taxi driver Muhammed Basharat, 61, from Levenshulme, tells The Independent that the Green vision is “excellent”. “Education policy, foreign policy, home policy, all their policies are brilliant”, he says.
Like those contemplating a vote for Reform, he too used to support Labour. But “they disappointed us very much”, he says, citing tax rises and cuts to welfare.
Similarly, care worker Jawad Hassan, 24, believes a vote for Green is in the best interests of working people and the way to keep Reform away from power. He is not impressed by Labour’s offering.
“I don’t think they work anymore for the working class”, he says, As for Reform, he says “whatever they’re doing is not good for a society where different ethnicities live together.”
At Manchester Gorton Market, mobile hairdresser Caterina Pandolfo, 65, remains undecided. Typically a Labour voter, she is put off by the prime minister and cannot forgive the treatment of Greater Manchester’s mayor.
But she will likely not be voting Reform, unimpressed by its policy offer.
She says: “The way he [Starmer] treated Andy Burnham was disgusting.
“I don’t think he’s doing very well at all, Keir Starmer, sadly”, she adds. He could have done so much.”
At the moment, none of the parties appeal to Caterina, who says she feels alienated from the political class.
“You know, hang on a minute, we’re just normal everyday working guys“, she says. “You know, this is Gorton, for God’s sake. We’re not flipping multi-millionaires, are we? “
Self-described “union man” Ian Cooney shares that feeling of detachment.
The 55-year-old electrical engineer from Gorton didn’t vote at the last general election, saying he did not trust any party to improve Gorton’s fortunes.
He says: “Gorton was fine years ago. I’ve lived here all my life. But we’re to a point now where it seems to be a dumping ground.”
“We seem to get a stigma when you’re living in Gorton”, he says.
Ian is leaning towards voting for Reform, believing that Labour no longer represents him.
He says: “My dad was a union guy, I’m a union man. I was brought up that way with Labour, but now their priorities are totally different from your working class man.”
Asked why he is tempted by Reform, Ian says: “Labour have done it before, Conservatives have done it before. They’ve offered us A and B and C and it never materialised.
“Do you give them [Reform] a go and see if, see if they’re true to their word?’
