The Greens' by-election candidate speaks to Left Foot Forward about why Parliament needs more working class MPs and her mission to restore trust in politics
Hannah Spencer, a working class plumber and the Green Party candidate in Gorton and Denton, says “we need more people who do jobs like mine and from backgrounds like mine” in Parliament.
In an interview with Left Foot Forward ahead of the Gorton and Denton by-election next Thursday, Spencer said that the public is used to “stuffy” people from “the elite and establishment” representing them.
However, she said that if she is elected as the Greens’ first MP in the North of England, as a woman with a trade and who is working class, it “will show absolutely everybody that there is a place in politics for them and I think that will be how we start to change politics”.
Spencer recounts how one voter said to her, “He said, ‘I never thought anyone like you could do that,” she said she responded: “anyone like you as well, it’s not just me, it’s everybody”.
Misinformation and restoring trust
Spencer wants to help restore people’s trust in politics by being “honest with people about what we can and can’t do together. We’re not out there selling people this impossible dream”.
Despite prioritising honesty, Spencer says that during the campaign a fair amount of “misinformation” has been circulating about her and is affecting who people decide to vote for.
She says rumours have spread in Facebook groups claiming that she lives in a £3 million gated community house with her multimillionaire husband, who is a chief executive Astrazeneca.
“None of those things are true,” she adds.
Spencer says that “when things are presented to people in a really believable way, that’s affecting their decisions and it’s a really alarming shift in democracy how rampant that misinformation is spreading”.
‘Money laundering takeaways’
The Telegraph published an article saying that Spencer had once posted a comment online saying how glad she was to be moving out of Levenshulme, which is in Gorton and Denton, due to it being full of “money laundering takeaways”.
Labour produced a video saying that her comments were “dogwhistle” and that the Greens are against the community.
The Green candidate, who originally hails from Bolton, said she is happy to be held accountable for her comments and that she has been open about having lived a challenging period of her life in the constituency.
Spencer went on to say that “There is nothing wrong with aspiration, but aspiration to leave an area is something we’ve all been made to feel.”
She said that people end up having to leave their communities, where they have roots, because they’re not being invested in.
“Life expectancy is the starkest thing, like moving to a different postcode will add years to your life, and I don’t want that for me and I certainly don’t want that for anyone else,” she said.
Reform’s claims about Gorton and Denton
During his campaign, the Reform candidate and GB News presenter, Matt Goodwin, has complained about anti-social behaviour in Gorton and Denton and accused politicians of allowing the area to fall into a state of “managed decline”.
Goodwin also claimed he’d seen children who should have been at school out in the street while campaigning.
Spencer noted that Gorton and Denton has some of the highest child poverty rates in England and Wales, with 12,100 children in the constituency living in poverty.
The Green candidate said she visited a youth centre called HideOut yesterday, which runs activities and provides opportunities to young people.
Spencer said that children are growing up “in really difficult circumstances” and in poverty, and slammed Reform for wanting to reinstate the two child benefit limit so they can reduce the cost of a pint by 5p.
She said of Reform, “They’re not at all interested or bothered about the life chances and circumstances of kids in our constituency, because they’re not coming up with solutions to make life better.”
She said: “We can all have a moan about things, but I’m actually out here trying to come up with ways to fix things.”
Spencer’s pledges to Gorton and Denton
If elected next Thursday, Spencer says she will hold Labour to account on nationalising public services, and better access to the NHS, including free prescriptions, dentistry, eye care and hearing aids.
With her plumber hat on, she wants to focus on insulating people’s homes properly due to help reduce people’s bills and help the climate.
The Greens are currently the bookmakers’ favourite to win the by-election, with Reform second and Labour third.
Asked whether it was really fair to say Labour is out of the running in this by-election, as the Greens have claimed, Spencer said: “It was clear from what people were saying on the doorstep from the outset, we weren’t having to do much convincing.”
She added that “People were sort of coming up to tell us that they couldn’t vote Labour again.”
Left Foot Forward has contacted Labour’s candidate Angeliki Stogia to request an interview.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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