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Labour MP Naz Shah has criticised claims by Reform UK that the legitimacy of the Gorton and Denton by-election – won by the Greens’ Hannah Spencer – was undermined by “family voting” and “Muslim sectarianism” in the Manchester constituency.
Shah, the MP for Bradford West – whose party’s candidate came third in a seat Labour won with a 13,400 majority in 2024 – told Byline Times that the claims by Reform’s candidate Matt Goodwin and his party leader Nigel Farage “demean” voters.
Reform has reported its allegations of ‘family voting’ – whereby a family member is seen to be influencing another person’s vote, such as by accompanying them in a polling booth – to Greater Manchester Police and the elections watchdog, the Electoral Commission.
Matt Goodwin posted on X ahead of the result: “Given the reports we are reading in the UK media about family voting and sectarianism, I am deeply concerned about the extent to which the Gorton and Denton parliamentary by-election is a free, fair, and democratic election.”
But Shah told Byline Times that what unfolded electorally in Gorton and Denton “was not sectarian voting”.
“This was people angry with mainstream parties on a range of issues, but also a deep feeling of not mattering and being taken for granted,” she said. “Those throwing around the sectarian label are not only factually wrong, they are normalising a narrative that demeans voters who made their voices heard democratically.
“The logic does not even hold. How do supposedly ‘sectarian Muslims’ end up voting for a radically progressive party with a gay Jewish leader?”