Police were last night urged to investigate ‘clear evidence’ of voter fraud in the Manchester by-election.

Amid warnings that Britain is ‘sleepwalking into sectarian politics’, plumber Hannah Spencer cruised to victory for the Greens in the previously safe Labour seat of Gorton and Denton.

Labour was pushed into third place, a humiliating result for Keir Starmer which triggered fresh calls for him to resign.

But Ms Spencer’s historic win was immediately mired in allegations of sectarianism after the Greens targeted the constituency’s large Muslim population with messages about the war in Gaza.

Election observers reported record levels of so-called ‘family voting’ – an illegal practice often involving a man entering the polling booth with his wife to tell her how to vote.

Soon after the polls closed, the independent group Democracy Observers issued a rare report to warn that as many as one in eight votes cast may have been affected by the practice, which is a criminal offence and carries a prison sentence.

Nigel Farage, whose Reform UK party trailed the Greens by 4,402 votes, said Ms Spencer’s triumph was a ‘victory for sectarian voting and cheating’.

Reform urged Greater Manchester Police to investigate 32 separate incidents of alleged family voting. The police said they were ‘in the process of reviewing this report’.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer cuts a disconsolate figure as meets local party members in London following the Green Party’s victory in the Gorton and Denton by-election

Green Party candidate and winner Hannah Spencer (right) and Green Party leader Zack Polanski (left) celebrate at an election rally with supporters at The Niamos Radical Arts Centre on February 26, 2026 in Manchester, England

Mr Farage also called on the Electoral Commission to investigate.

‘What was witnessed yesterday is deeply concerning and raises serious questions about the integrity of the democratic process in predominantly Muslim areas,’ he said. 

‘If this is what was happening at polling stations just imagine the potential for coercion with postal votes.’

Kemi Badenoch said Labour had ‘created the monster of harvesting Muslim community bloc votes’ at previous elections, adding: ‘That monster came back to bite them.’

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The Tory leader said the rise of sectarian politics was starting to ‘unravel the culture of tolerance that makes Britain great’.

She accused the Greens of running ‘a nasty, sectarian campaign while simultaneously wanting to legalise crack cocaine’. Greens leader Zack Polanski denied fuelling sectarianism.

But Sir Keir warned that the Greens’ ‘extreme’ policies, such as legalising all drugs and pulling out of Nato, were a threat to Britain.

He said Mr Polanski had shown his ‘true colours’ by accepting an endorsement from veteran Left-wing rabble rouser George Galloway.

In a letter to Labour MPs, the PM said: ‘Their willingness to welcome Galloway’s divisive, sectarian politics is a sign that the Greens are not the harmless environmentalists they pretend to be, and their position on legalising all drugs shows how unstable this electoral coalition is.

‘It cannot survive a general election campaign.’

On another disastrous day for the Prime Minister:

• Angela Rayner led calls for Sir Keir to shift Labour further Left to take on the Greens, saying the party had to be ‘braver’;
• The PM insisted he would not resign despite the ‘very disappointing’ result, saying he would fight on ‘for as long as I’ve got breath in my body’;
• The statue of Sir Winston Churchill was vandalised by a pro-Palestine activist;
• Mr Polanski said the Gorton result suggested his hard-Left party could win a ‘tidal wave’ of MPs from Labour at the next election;
• Left-wing MPs called for Sir Keir to quit before further damage is done at the local elections in May;
•  Mrs Badenoch said the PM was ‘in office but not in power… a hostage at the mercy of a divided Labour Party that cannot decide who to replace him with’.

Democracy Volunteers said so-called ‘family voting’ was seen at two-thirds of the polling stations visited by observers on Thursday and was involved in 12 per cent of the votes cast during its attendance. 

If the same level occurred across the constituency, it could have involved 4,400 votes, roughly equal to Ms Spencer’s majority.

Dr John Ault, director of the group, said the ‘concerningly high levels of family voting’ were the ‘highest ever seen’ in a decade of monitoring elections in the UK.

The group also reported voters taking photos of their ballot paper in breach of the law. 

Ms Spencer’s historic win was immediately mired in allegations of sectarianism after the Greens targeted the constituency’s large Muslim population with messages about the war in Gaza

In one case an individual was allowed to vote despite being marked as having already cast a ballot.

Manchester City Council said no issues had been reported and it was ‘extremely disappointing’ that Democracy Volunteers waited until after the polls closed to make the claims, to which the group retorted it was ‘international standard’ not to issue a comment until voting had finished.

Yesterday some residents of the Gorton constituency admitted they were aware of family voting, but said they had not personally witnessed any irregularities.

Irfan Zaib, 50, said: ‘I have heard that in some of the families, the father is an influence in how they vote.’ 

Tayyab Hussain, 33, added: ‘Probably it does happen in some parts of the community, but I don’t believe it’s common.’

The Gorton and Denton contest was one of the ugliest for years, with all sides alleging sharp practices by their opponents and the Greens accused of ‘whipping up hatred’ among the large community of Muslim voters who make up around a third of the local electorate.

Ms Spencer issued leaflets and campaign videos in Urdu, accusing Reform candidate Matthew Goodwin of being someone who would ‘fuel the flames of Islamophobia’. Activists in the constituency were filmed flying Palestinian and Pakistani flags.

A Green Party spokesman said claims the party cheated its way to victory were ‘an attempt to undermine the democratic result’.