The Prime Minister has warned that community tensions could rise if Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party were to win the Gorton & Denton parliamentary by-election in the Greater Manchester constituency.
Taking the unusual step of joining the campaign trail in person, Sir Keir Starmer framed the contest as a broader political and cultural choice, saying it was a “basic battle” between a party seeking to unite communities and one he implied could deepen divisions.
Although he did not explicitly name the party, the comments were widely seen as a warning about Reform UK, which has sought to capitalise on local frustrations over issues such as immigration, policing, and public services, resonating with voters’ everyday concerns.
Starmer said: “The battle here is that basic battle between a party that wants to bring our communities together.
To make sure that everybody in this constituency has their voice heard in Parliament through their brilliant Labour candidate, or a party that couldn’t really care less where the constituency is.
“That is not the politics of this constituency. That is not the politics of this country.”
He added: “We must be in this fight, fighting for all the people that will be affected by decisions made here on Thursday and making sure that they have the hope to go forward, that better support from a Labour Government, and to make sure that we do not descend into hostility, which would follow a Reform win.
He continued: “This is a battle of values in this by-election.
The values of the Labour Party, which wants to bring communities together in unity and hope, or the toxic division of Reform that wants to tear our communities apart, that wants to break apart everything that we’ve stood for, for years and years in this country.
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