Muslim voting group backs Greens to stop Nigel Farage as Keir Starmer braces for bruising by-election defeat

“Muslim voters, alongside many others in the constituency, will play a decisive role in this by-election,” the campaign group said.

“This moment must result in the defeat of both Labour and Reform through unity behind a single, credible candidate.

“On this occasion, we believe the Green Party offers the strongest opportunity to win, and we urge them to work swiftly with local communities, while calling on all other progressive and independent alternatives to stand aside to give the best chance of delivering a clear break from politics as usual and putting the community first.”

Gorton & Denton, which is the UK’s 23rd most Muslim constituency with 30 per cent of electors identifying as followers of Islam, now looks poised to deal Sir Keir a bloody nose less than 12 months after Labour lost Runcorn & Helsby to Reform UK.

“Realistically, we know that we’re going to lose,” a senior Government source told The Times.

“But it was a question of what was worse: losing a by-election or losing control of Greater Manchester, which would have been a total disaster.”

However, another Labour source insisted Sir Keir is “not writing the seat off” and needed to be “quick out of the blocks” to position Labour as the principal challenger to Reform.

The Green Party is considering deploying its deputy leader, Mothin Ali, as its candidate.

Mr Ali, who was once under investigation by party officials after shouting “Allahu Akbar” following his council election win, has attacked Labour for supporting “genocide” in Gaza.

He has also shared support from the Muslim Vote, which is backing the Greens.

However, Mr Farage admitted Labour’s decision to block Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham from contesting the seat has boosted Reform UK.

He said: “Burnham would have galvanised the anti-Starmer vote. He’d have pushed the turnout up, and I think it would have been very difficult for us to beat him.

“I’m being absolutely frank about that, we might have come a good second.”

Ex-Health Minister Andrew Gwynne, who first won the Manchester constituency in 2005, was returned as the MP for Denton & Gorton with a majority of 13,413 votes in 2024.

Reform UK finished in second on 5,142, meaning Mr Farage requires a swing roughly the same size as in Runcorn & Helsby to win the seat.

A Green Party source admitted that Mr Polanski is looking to win over Pakistani voters ahead of February 29.

“What we know is that this is a younger-than-average demographic in this constituency, it’s got a higher-than-average number of Muslim votes, particularly Pakistani-origin families," the insider told The Times.

Mr Polanski will launch his campaign at Longsight's Pakistani Community Centre at 7pm tonight.

Labour's vote share among Asian Muslims had collapsed by 28 per cent between 2019 and 2024, bombshell research released after the last general election has revealed.

Support for pro-Palestine independent candidates and the Green Party surged as a result of Labour's drastic drop.

However, George Galloway's Workers Party is also putting up Shahbaz Sarwar as its candidate in Gorton & Denton.

Mr Galloway won a by-election in nearby Rochdale in 2024, before losing the heavily Muslim seat to Labour at the general election just a few weeks later.