Is the Lebanonisation of Britain under way?

The result in Gorton and Denton shows that our nation is increasingly dividing along ethnic, religious and cultural lines

Paul Embery is one of the most interesting, insightful and original voices to have emerged in British journalism for some time — Douglas Murray

THERE IS A revolution taking place in British politics. What happened early this morning in an unglamorous corner of Greater Manchester is proof that something seismic is occurring.

Some will argue that by-election protest votes against sitting governments are a feature of our political landscape and nothing significant should be read into the verdict of the electorate in Gorton and Denton.

They are wrong. Sure, all governments experience mid-term unpopularity, and voter anger is often expressed through the mechanism of by-elections. But in years past, a by-election defeat for the governing party in one of its own seats invariably meant a victory for the official opposition or the Liberal Democrats. In Gorton and Denton, these outcomes were never on the cards.

What we saw instead was Labour battling to hold on to the constituency in the face of a major advance by two insurgent parties – Reform and the Greens – who can presently boast no more than a smattering of parliamentary seats between them. And one of these parties ended up securing a momentous victory, while the other grabbed second place.