Labour’s loss at the Gorton and Denton by-election has been “very painful and bruising” – but replacing Sir Keir Starmer “won’t solve the problem”, Baroness Harriet Harman has said.
The former deputy Labour leader cautioned her party’s MPs from seeking to replace the prime minister following the loss – and insisted it “could be worse”.
Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer won the by-election with 14,980 votes – a majority of 4,402 – in the early hours of Friday morning, pushing Labour into third place in an area they have not lost since 1931.
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But speaking to the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Baroness Harman insisted “it would’ve been worse if it had been Reform” who won, and urged Labour backbenchers to hold their resolve.
She told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby: “This has been very painful and bruising, it will increase anxiety in the run-up to the council elections in England, and in elections in Scotland and Wales.
“This will test the mettle of the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party], they don’t want instability. They do want delivery on the manifesto.
“But the fundamentals remain absolutely the same – that piling instability into this situation by having a leadership challenge is not going to solve the problems that people want solved, which is improvement in the way their lives are, improvement in their public services and stability in government.”
The Labour peer also sought to play down Labour’s by-election loss, by saying a Reform UK victory would have “really scared me”.
She explained: “I would’ve felt worse if Reform had won because if you feel that this country is moving towards really quite divisive, racist, xenophobic, populist right-wing policies – that would’ve really scared me.
“It was very bruising and disappointing that Labour, having hope to win, didn’t win. But I would’ve felt much worse if Reform had won.”
