Oct 8, 2026 · 23 min · 11 segments
There's a big by-election in Britain today, and the outcome could decide the fate of Britain's duelling left-wing parties. So... can the Green Party keep its momentum, or will Labour strike back? The…
Tom NicholasHost
To clarify for anyone watching from outside the UK, a by-election is what we call any election which takes place to replace a member of parliament or a councillor or any other elected official outside of the usual process.
They happen either because someone has resigned or had their seat taken away from them for whatever reason or potentially died.
By-elections are, for the most part, uninteresting, inconsequential and forgettable.
Because this year we've actually had four by-elections which have, for various reasons, been genuinely really interesting.
Actually quite good news for you if you had recently, say, started an almost daily news show.
We've seen, for example, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage face off against a man dressed as a giant dustbin in an election which, in the end, wasn't actually that interesting or consequential, but certainly captured the imaginations of many people across the world.
Not too long before that was the by-election in which Andy Burnham, previously the Mayor of Greater Manchester, stood to become a Member of Parliament for the express purpose of heading down to London to replace Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister.
That one was extremely consequential and pretty much one of a kind certainly in my lifetime.
The key precursor to today's by-election, however, was that which took place in Gorton and Denton in Greater Manchester back in February.
Because it was that by-election which really kicked off the war over left-wing voters between the Labour Party and the Green Party, which today feels like a kind of culmination of.
To clarify for anyone watching from outside the UK, a by-election is what we call any election which takes place to replace a member of parliament or a councillor or any other elected official outside of the usual process.
They happen either because someone has resigned or had their seat taken away from them for whatever reason or potentially died.
By-elections are, for the most part, uninteresting, inconsequential and forgettable.
Because this year we've actually had four by-elections which have, for various reasons, been genuinely really interesting.
Actually quite good news for you if you had recently, say, started an almost daily news show.
We've seen, for example, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage face off against a man dressed as a giant dustbin in an election which, in the end, wasn't actually that interesting or consequential, but certainly captured the imaginations of many people across the world.
Not too long before that was the by-election in which Andy Burnham, previously the Mayor of Greater Manchester, stood to become a Member of Parliament for the express purpose of heading down to London to replace Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister.
That one was extremely consequential and pretty much one of a kind certainly in my lifetime.
The key precursor to today's by-election, however, was that which took place in Gorton and Denton in Greater Manchester back in February.
Because it was that by-election which really kicked off the war over left-wing voters between the Labour Party and the Green Party, which today feels like a kind of culmination of.
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