Hannah Kathrine Spencer (born 1991) is a British Green Party politician and tradeswoman who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gorton and Denton since the February 2026 by-election. She has served as a Councillor for Hale on Trafford Council since 2023, and as the Green Party Group Leader on the council since 2025. Spencer was the Green Party's candidate in the 2024 Greater Manchester mayoral election, where she was placed fifth. She is the first Green Party member to win a by-election in the UK, and the party's first MP in the north of England. == Early life and education == Hannah Kathrine Spencer was born in Bolton, Greater Manchester, in 1991; her mother was a nurse. She left school at 16; after leaving school she attempted sixth-form studies but dropped out. She did not undertake an apprenticeship but became a plumber in around 2008, eventually completing a National Vocational Qualification in the trade at Bolton College. Her work included installing heat pumps. She later took an apprenticeship to complete an NVQ as a gas engineer. In 2014–15 she participated in the Prince's Trust Enterprise programme, at the end of which she established her own business, Hannah's Household Plumbing, "after years of struggling to go self-employed". In February 2026, she also completed training as a plasterer, during which she was the only woman on her course. == Political career == Spencer entered politics through opposition to greyhound racing. She joined the Green Party of England and Wales in 2022, saying in 2026 that she "was so angry at the gap between the super-rich and all the rest of us getting bigger." She also commented that she approved of the Green Party's member-led policy-making. She was elected councillor for the newly-created Hale ward on Trafford Council in the 2023 election, a part of Manchester previously held by the Conservative Party. Spencer was selected as leader of the Green Party group on Trafford Council in May 2025, succeeding Michael Welton. Spencer ran as the Green Party candidate for Mayor of Greater Manchester in the 2024 mayoral election, finishing in fifth place with 45,905 votes (6.9%), a then record result for the Green Party. She campaigned on addressing the cost-of-living crisis and the climate crisis, retrofitting more homes with insulation, encouraging active travel, and providing more support for domestic violence victims. Spencer was selected as the Green Party candidate for the Warrington North constituency in the 2024 general election, coming fifth with 1,889 votes (4.7%). In the 2025 Green Party internal elections she ran for the position of local party support coordinator, losing to Rosie Rawle. She endorsed Zack Polanski in the 2025 Green Party leadership election. Spencer was appointed Green Party spokesperson for migration and refugee support in September 2025. === Member of Parliament === In January 2026, Spencer was selected as the Green Party candidate for Gorton and Denton in the February by-election, following the resignation of the Labour Party incumbent, Andrew Gwynne. She won the by-election with 40.7% of the votes, a majority of 4,402, defeating both Reform UK (28.7%) and the Labour Party (25.4%) to become the Green Party's fifth MP and first in the North of England. This was considered significant because the area was once a Labour safe seat, Labour having held the constituency since 1931, and because this was the first parliamentary by-election win for the Greens. The result was widely considered a significant blow for the prime minister, Keir Starmer. In what became a three-way race between Labour, the right-wing populist Reform UK, and the Green Party, Spencer described the by-election as a contest of "Green v Reform. Hope v hate". During the election campaign, Spencer emphasised that she was local to Manchester and argued that her work as a tradesperson, which regularly took her into ordinary people's homes, helped her have a strong sense of everyday voters' realities, and that Members of Parliament should come from more diverse walks of life. Her campaign focused on the high cost of living, which she proposed to address by reducing inequality, partly via a wealth tax, and on supporting public services, including nationalising water supplies. Spencer also said that, if elected, she would campaign for a £15 minimum wage; rent controls; lower energy bills, partly through improved home insulation; and free prescriptions, dentistry and eye care. She criticised the Labour Party's handling of the Gaza war, describing the Green Party as having a "proud history" of standing with Palestinians. Spencer's campaign was the target of extensive misinformation on social media, with some users questioning Spencer's credentials and background. One image of an expensive property in Hale claimed, falsely, that Spencer lived there. Another posting claimed that Spencer was married to a multimillionaire chief executive at AstraZeneca. However, Spencer is not married and the claim referred to a former partner, who was a scientist at AstraZeneca and not a chief executive. Following verbal abuse as a result of the misinformation, Spencer attended some events accompanied by security. == Personal life == As of 2024, Spencer lived in Trafford. She had previously lived in Levenshulme, which is part of the Gorton and Denton constituency. She owns four greyhounds rescued from greyhound racing, which she has campaigned against. She enjoys running, and completed a marathon in 2015. When she was 22, she was listed in an article in The Guardian about the best-dressed people at the 2013 Glastonbury Festival. == References == == External links == Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom Contributions in Parliament at Hansard Voting record at Public Whip Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou