It wasn’t just the size of the win, or the fact that turnout was as high as it was in 2024. Nor was it expected – the Green party hadn’t even listed the seat among its top 100 targets. What really surprised people was the way they won it. By choosing a young plumber, Hannah Spencer, as its candidate, the party punctured the caricature of it as metropolitan radicals. Campaigning on affordability, she sounded like Labour before Labour lost its moral cadence. The result was a narrative success: proof that the Greens can reach ordinary voters, hold minority communities and speak Labour’s historic language – despite Sir Keir describing them as sectarian and extreme.