Labour must cease taking progressive voters for granted, says Sadiq Khan

Labour must cease taking progressive voters for granted, says Sadiq Khan London mayor criticises PM for calling Greens ‘extreme’ after Gorton and Denton loss, saying it is a ‘flawed strategy’ Sadiq Khan: ‘Labour must stop channelling Reform and unite with progressives. That’s the byelection’s lesson’ The mayor of London has said the Gorton and Denton byelection has exposed a “far-reaching change and fracturing” in UK politics and Labour must ditch its “flawed strategy” of taking liberal progressives for granted. In what appears to be an attack on Keir Starmer, Sadiq Khan challenged the prime minister’s branding of the Green party and its policies as “extreme”, saying many of its supporters shared Labour’s values but were disappointed in the government. Plumber Hannah Spencer overturned a Labour majority of more than 13,000 to become the Green party’s fifth MP. Her party has enjoyed a rise in popularity under its new leader, Zack Polanski, attracting many disaffected former Labour supporters. The Labour candidate, Angeliki Stogia, came third, just behind Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin, in one of the most humiliating byelection results in Labour’s history. Labour insiders have long warned that the party risks losing support on the left as it attempts to combat the rise of Reform UK. Polanski has criticised Labour for its recent hardline immigration policies, claiming the party was echoing “the racist rhetoric of the far right”. The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is expected to double down with planned changes to asylum policy . Writing for the Guardian, Khan said that trying to compete with Reform was inauthentic and a betrayal of Labour values, and warned that the party faced catastrophe in the May elections unless it changed course. Khan said: “There’s no sugar-coating what happened in the byelection in Gorton and Denton – it’s a terrible result for Labour, coming third in a seat that we had held for nearly a century. “People often exaggerate the significance of byelect...