Greens Attack Farage's Claim Reform Won By-Election 'Among British-Born Voters'

Nigel Farage has been accused of trying to “delegitimise” the Gorton and Denton by-election results with fresh claims about voters in the constituency.

The Green Party’s Hannah Spencer won the hotly contested seat with 14,980 votes – nearly 41% of all the votes cast – while Reform’s Matthew Goodwin came in second, with 10,578.

Green leader Zack Polanski accused his Reform counterpart Farage of being a “sore loser” after the right-wing leader claimed the victors had cheated with so-called “family voting”.

Farage then told a press conference on Monday: “I’m absolutely convinced that among British-born voters, Matthew Goodwin came first in that election last week.

“Of that I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever.”

A Green Party spokesperson told HuffPost UK that Farage was echoing the words of “anti-democrats through the ages”.

“This is dangerous, racist nonsense from a party who were well beaten, seeking to de-legitimise the election, Donald Trump style,” the spokesman said.

“In a democracy, everyone’s vote is equal and we attracted voters from across all communities, in all areas, including from those who said they were going to originally vote Reform.

“Farage has no idea who did and didn’t vote for him, because as he said, he always knew they were going to lose.

“If you don’t like the results of an election, change the electorate – the refrain of sore losers and anti-democrats through the ages.”

The smackdown comes after the Greens hit back at Farage’s claim last week that they won by “sectarian voting and cheating”.

Independent election observers Democracy Volunteers said they had witnessed “concerningly high levels of family voting” throughout the day.

But, the Greens said: “The scale of our victory shows that the Green Party has picked up substantial support in all parts of the constituency, in all areas, among all people.”

Polanski also said he would back a probe into family voting, telling BBC Newsnight it’s important there’s “full transparency about the democratic process”.

Meanwhile, Farage announced on Monday that Reform would scrap postal voting and ensure only British passport-holders can have a say in elections.

At the moment, qualifying Commonwealth citizens and EU citizens can vote in UK elections.