Labour accused of using fake tactical voting organisation

Controversy has emerged over a number of leaflets delivered within the Gorton and Denton constituency prior to the by-election on the 26th of February.

With polling evidently tight, leaflets were delivered to constituents, appearing to have come from an organisation called 'Tactical Choice'. The flyers read: "The Tactical Choice says Vote Labour. Based on a new prediction made in the last 24 hours, we are recommending voting Labour".

The Green Party has alleged that the organisation "Tactical Choice" does not exist, an accusation that was not denied by a Labour Party Spokesperson to the Huffington Post.

Moreover, the Greens have also suggested that the leaflet was distributed on behalf of Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia.

Two independent tactical voting organisations: Tactical Vote and StopTheTories.Vote, both recommended voting for the Green Party to prevent a ReformUK win.

The latest polls suggest that the race could be neck-and-neck between the Greens, Labour and ReformUK.

At the last general election, Labour won the seat with a majority of nearly 13,500, but misconduct triggered a suspension for Andrew Gwynee from the Labour Party last year, causing him to sit as an independent MP.

His resignation on the grounds of "ill health" triggered the by-election, and Labour have been determined to reclaim the seat.

In response to the pamphlet, the leader of the Green Party, Zack Polanski, has written to the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Lucy Powell, stating that: "This is deeply troubling, it is actually lying to voters".

Furthermore, commentator Owen Jones have questioned the legality of this tactic.

Although the Labour Party have not officially responded to these claims, a number of individuals from the party have spoken out.

A Labour campaign spokesperson, reports the Daily Mail, said "the Greens have been pumping out fake news and deploying dirty tactics for weeks. We’ll take no lectures from them".

Oliver Ryan, MP for Burnley, has tweeted in support of a tactical vote for Labour, commenting ‘I’m glad Tactical Choice agree’.

This is not the only controversy surrounding tactical voting that emerged during the run up to the election.

On Tuesday 24 February, Labour's official Instagram account published a polling bar-chart, reading "Breaking: There's One Point in it".

The chart only included two bars, one for Labour and one for Reform, placing Labour one point ahead of Reform at 28% to their respective 27%. They used this data to push voters to "back Labour' over "Reform's division", with every vote counting.

This chart, however, did not include the data for the Green Party, who, at the time, were polling exactly level with Labour.

Speaking to The Guardian on the morning of election day, Zack Polanski accused Labour of deliberately splitting the left vote, as a Green victory would be "existential" for Starmer.

He added that Labour "know that the Green party are on track to win this election" and that they are "doing everything they can to try and split the vote", claiming that his party's own internal data suggest that Labour are  "way, way behind" the Greens and Reform, with the latter fractionally in the lead.

It should be noted that in the May 2025 Runcorn and Helsby by-election, the combined vote total of the Green and Labour parties was larger than that of the winning ReformUK.