Labour accuses the Greens of a “grubby deal” in the Gorton and Denton by-election, but it's backfired exposing Labour’s own panic and hypocrisy. Right, so Labour is attacking the Greens in the Gorton and Denton by-election by accusing them of cheating and cowardice at the same time, and in doing that it has blown up its own case for why it deserves to win this seat at all. What Labour is saying is simple. It’s calling it a “grubby deal” that two smaller parties chose not to stand and said, publicly, that the Greens were best placed to beat Labour and Reform. And it’s calling it “bottling it” that the Greens selected a local candidate instead of parachuting their deputy leader into the race. So not splitting the vote is corruption, and picking someone from the area is weakness. That’s the attack. And once you understand that, the rest of the behaviour suddenly makes sense — the panic, the shouting, the contradictions, the refusal to debate, the sudden surge in Green ground operation. This video is about what Labour has just admitted by making those attacks, why it can’t walk them back, and what breaks when a party starts trying to disqualify opponents instead of beating them. Right, so Labour has picked a fight in the Gorton and Denton by-election, and the way it’s done it tells you something has already gone badly wrong for them. Not later. Not hypothetically. Already. So here’s what’s just happened. Labour has accused the Greens of two things at the same time. First, it has accused them of being involved in what it called a “grubby deal” with other parties. Second, it has accused Zack Polanski of “bottling it” by not standing himself and without an ounce of self reflection. Start with the so-called “grubby deal”. In this by-election there are three parties with a realistic presence on the ground: Labour, Reform, and the Greens. Alongside them are smaller parties who don’t have the numbers, the volunteers, or the reach to win the seat themselves. Two of those smaller parties being Your Party and the Workers Party. They looked at the race and made a decision. They decided not to stand candidates. Not because they’d been promised anything. Not because they’d been offered positions. Not because there was any agreement behind the scenes. They said, publicly, that in a three-way contest the Greens were the strongest chance of beating both Labour and Reform, and that standing themselves would just split the vote.