Gorton & Denton: We're not watching a by-election - we're watching a new kind of politics

Everyone should be watching the Gorton and Denton by-election because it is a live demo of the new politics in the UK. The destruction of the old parties that has come about by the electorate now voting for brands, not beliefs.

Why do I say that? Because The Muslim Vote didn’t back an independent. They backed the Greens.

That’s not a detail - that’s the whole story. This is an area with a 28% Muslim population. If this was about “having a voice” or “representation” or “sending Labour a message”… they would have endorsed an 'independent' candidate as they did in the general election.

But they didn’t do that. They chose a host body because this isn’t about being heard. It’s about getting inside the machinery of Government at every level.

They used to use labour for this shield but Labour is radioactive to them now — politically rudderless and morally compromised. The point isn’t to scare Labour into compliance, The Muslim Vote aren't dancing with a new partner to make them jealous. They've been having an affair with the Green Party for many months and now they've decided to move in.

And instead of going it alone for they have worked out that the independent route is strategically exposed. An independent Muslim candidate at this election would showcase sectarian politics, extremism and highlight the community divide, a divide that we all know exists from a 'community' that has and never will assimilate into British society.

So if you actually want results under FPTP, you don’t keep doing independents you occupy a respectable label and the Green Party is the perfect disguise because it comes with legal immunity.

“Green” is a magic word in UK politics and European politics in general.

It attracts:

• the morally programmed,

• the chronically guilt-ridden,

• the “stop Reform at all costs” crowd,

• the young vote that confuses slogans for thinking,

• and the soft-left 'pearl clutcher'

  
  

And if anyone points out what’s happening, the response is preloaded:

• “racist”

• “Islamophobic”

• “far-right”

• “conspiracy”

• “dog whistle”

• “de-platform them”

• “someone check his hard drive”

That’s why the Greens are so valuable as a host. It’s not because everyone suddenly cares about recycling in Gorton, it's because Green is socially armoured.

We are sliding from “party politics” into vehicle politics.

Disciplined blocs don’t need to start a party anymore. Why would they?

• You get instant stigma.

• Instant scrutiny.

• Instant resistance.

  
  

Instead, you find the right host. You move in and you recruit outside your base using the host’s brand, then you convert concentrated turnout into seats.

The story isn’t that the Greens are rising. The story is that organised blocs are learning they don’t need their own party - they just need the right host.

Of course, the hosts should remember: history is full of movements that welcomed an ally for short-term momentum, only to discover they’d admitted something closer to a parasitoid — a force that lives inside the host, redirects its energy, and eventually defines what the host becomes. The Iranian Revolution is the cautionary template: broad coalitions form to win, but the best-organised, most fanatic faction often governs. That will always be the Islamists.

But the Greens don’t just make a useful host for one disciplined bloc. They also act as a host for the ultra-left — the faction that doesn’t want “green policy”, it wants leverage, disruption, and institutional capture through whatever brand works this decade.

So you can end up with a shared vehicle:

• different motives,

• same enemies,

• same tactics,

• same march through the institutions.

  
  

It’s not a conspiracy. It’s just how coalitions behave when they’re built on power rather than principle and Gorton & Denton gives us the first real look at the new politics out in the open.

Right now the MSM narrative is that Reform is the government-in-waiting. But my prediction is that we are going to see a fragmented party system and collations, just like Europe. Collations of the left and the Muslims V the right - and probably around the 50% mark each side.

The 2029 election (if there is one) is going to be a lot closer than many of us hope and I think has all the potential to cause political paralysis going forward, neither side able to get policies through.

That has disaster written all over it.