Euan McColm explains why the Greens' by-election victory may signal a fundamental change in UK politics

There are countless versions of that piece of wisdom, ascribed to several historical figures. Some will tell you Winston Churchill said it. Others that it sprung from the lips of George Bernard Shaw.

I can offer you no definitive attribution but whoever came up with it was, I think, on to something.

When we’re young and have little, the idea of sharing is hugely appealing isn’t it? Broke and starting out, we would very much like to be on the receiving end of the redistribution of wealth.

As we age and – if we are fortunate – gain capital, human nature dictates that we’d prefer to hang on to what we’ve got, thank you very much.

But that transition from idealism to pragmatism depends on us actually gaining something. In order for us to hoard wealth, we first have to accumulate it.

For a generation locked out of home ownership, that is a vanishingly unlikely prospect.

In the aftermath of Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer’s comfortable victory in last Thursday’s Gorton and Denton by-election, opponents were quick to explain away their defeat.

Labour, which had previously considered the seat a safe one but ended up in third place, offered the usual bromides about listening and learning. Reform UK, whose candidate Matt Goodwin, came second were rather punchier, claiming that Spencer had benefited from illegal “family voting” – where the votes of all members of a household are dictated by a patriarch – by Muslim constituents.

Goodwin, a bad loser, said: “Everybody can see this for what it is. They will look at this result and see the very concerning warnings about family voting and they are going to see exactly what this is.”

Reform leader Nigel Farage poured petrol on that fire, writing on X: “This is deeply concerning and raises serious questions about the integrity of the democratic process in predominantly Muslim areas.”

It is, undoubtedly, the case that the Greens made a special effort in Gorton and Denton to appeal to Muslim voters (this is called campaigning) but I struggle to believe that, even if “family voting” played some part in Hannah Spencer’s victory, it fully explains the result.

In her victory speech in the early hours of Friday morning, Spencer identified a change in the rules of getting on in life.

“I work hard,” she said, “That is what we do. Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades, because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house, a nice life, holidays, it got you somewhere.

“But now, working hard, what does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they will tell you. The people who work hard, but can’t put food on the table, can’t get their kids school uniforms, can’t put their heating on, can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for, can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday, ever.”

The ranks of the Green Party may be stuffed with crankish gender ideologues and antisemites but Spencer’s words will have chimed with many perfectly ordinary voters who feel the gap between rich and poor widening.

In less than a minute, the new Green MP told the traditional mainstream parties why things are going so badly wrong for them.

Now in my mid-50s, I am, perhaps, of the last generation for whom the prospect of owning one’s own home (without the assistance of wealthy parents or a generous inheritance) is not the stuff of fantasy.

Add to that, an ongoing cost-of-living crisis and stagnant wages and the number of people likely to make the transition from idealist to pragmatist shrinks. The period during which one has nothing to lose stretches on. For an increasing number of people, it will last a lifetime.

It may be comforting for Labour members to buy into the idea that this once safe seat fell because of either “family voting” or, simply, because there’s a long tradition of parties of government losing by-elections.

But Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer – or whoever succeeds him, for his days in power are numbered – should consider the possibility that something bigger is happening. Labour and Conservatives, alike, may find that the old order has been upturned and that populists from both left (the Greens) and right (Reform) are on course to further change the face of the UK’s politics.

In Scotland, the Labour Party was recklessly complacent in the face of rising support for the SNP. Sure, the nationalists were a powerful campaigning force but there was a ceiling through which such a “fringe” party would never break.

While Labour continued to take voters for granted, the SNP grew more powerful, eventually winning the 2007 Holyrood election. In May, the Scottish nationalists will – in the absence of an Act of God – will secure their fifth consecutive election victory.

The same dissatisfaction among voters – the sense that Labour and the Tories had both grown complacent – which fuelled the SNP machine is now driving support for both the Greens and Reform.

How those traditionally dominant parties counter this populist surge is not at all clear.

Innumerable promises of change have not altered the course on which many people’s lives have been set by circumstances beyond their control.

With nothing to lose and no prospect of advancement, young voters who backs the Greens today may not easily be persuaded to shift their allegiances.

Hannah Spencer’s victory in Gorton and Denton might be the moment that tells us British politics has fundamentally changed.