The Green Party’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election faces allegations of hypocrisy for jetting off on foreign holidays and co-owning homes worth over £1m.

Hannah Spencer’s Instagram account also shows the environmentally conscious prospective MP posing next to what appears to be a petrol car emblazoned with campaign slogans.

Ms Spencer, 34, is the leading left-wing candidate against Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin, a former university academic turned GB News presenter.

Labour – defending the seat previously held by Andrew Gwynne who stepped down after being part of a WhatsApp group which exchanged messages mocking voters – is expected to lose heavily in Thursday’s vote.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham was blocked from standing by the party’s National Executive Committee and Angeliki Stogia, a local councillor, has been selected instead.

Ms Spencer announced her candidacy with a press release declaring: ‘Greens pick local plumber to win Gorton and Denton’.

Hannah Spencer, 34, is vying against Reform UK to win the Denton and Gorton by-election

Hannah Spencer poses on the steps of a tram in San Francisco on trip to the US in 2014

Green Party candidate Ms Spencer also travelled to Valencia, in Spain, in 2016

She told locals: ‘I’ve lived in the constituency and still work here. So I know the issues and what people want to change.’

But while Denton and Gorton contains some of Greater Manchester’s most deprived neighbourhoods with incomes 25pc below the national average, Ms Spencer owns two houses in Greater Manchester’s most affluent postcodes with her former biochemist partner Dr Stephen Holman.

Separately, her social media account shows numerous long and short-haul holidays.

Trips documented on social media include Amsterdam in 2018, separate Spanish trips to Valencia and Barcelona in 2016 and a trans-Atlantic jaunt in 2014 to New York and San Francisco. The same year, she also travelled to Hungary.

In another social media post from February 8, Ms Spencer poses next to a car covered in the Green Party’s logo and campaign slogans – however the vehicle appears not to be an eco-friendly electric or hybrid model but a Turbo petrol-powered Vauxhall Astra.

Meanwhile, in a 2016 Instagram post mocking the ‘Brexsh*t’ referendum result, Ms Spencer described how she ‘joked’ with a customer that leaving the European Union would make life more expensive.

‘You’re all gonna pay more for me to come and fix your toilet’, she wrote, accompanied by the hashtag #worldsmostexpensiveplumber.

Residents in the former Gorton and Reddish seat, a major part of the Denton and Gorton constituency – created after a reorganisation – voted to leave the EU by 61.4pc to 38.6pc.

Posing in Amsterdam, Ms Spencer on yet another foreign trip in 2018

Ms Spencer poses beside what appears to be a petrol-powered car with campaign slogans 

Ms Spencer, standing in a constituency with many Brexit supporters, joked in 2016 that leaving the EU would push up her prices using a profane play on the word ‘Brexit’

Ms Spencer and Dr Holman were living in a smart terraced home in affluent Sale, and splurged £750,000 on another property less than five miles away in Altrincham 18 months ago.

Voters in Gorton spoke of their disappointment at the Green Party candidate’s hypocrisy over her love of flying and foreign holidays.

They also criticised her for owning two homes when many were struggling with the cost of living.

Grandmother Irene Baxter, 77, said: ‘It’s pretty outrageous. How can she stand for a party that wants to clamp down on air travel when she jets all over the world herself?

‘I was going to vote for her as I’ve had it with Labour and all their lies. But she seems to be like the rest of them.’

Airport worker Paul Hall, 43, said: ‘I liked the sounds of her as she’s a local. She came across as a down-to plumber.

‘But to find out she’s got lots of money with two homes is outrageous. How can she stand as a Green candidate when she loves air travel and jetting off around the world? She’s a hypocrite.’

Self-employed Mike Kerr, 49, said: ‘She shouldn’t stand as an MP if she doesn’t do what she preaches.’

The smart £280,000 terraced home owned by Ms Spencer and her partner Dr Holman

In 2024, the couple spent over £750,000 on a larger property which they have not moved into

Neighbours living close to Ms Spencer and her husband’s new home in Altrincham said the couple have not moved in but had been seen working on the property.

One said: ‘It’s looks worse now than when they first bought it. It looks abandoned now and is really scruffy. Everyone is wondering what is going on with it.’

Locals were unimpressed by Ms Spencer’s love of travelling and air travel.

Pensioner Jim Hughes, 71, said: ‘I thought the Greens were all about the environment not polluting the planet with long haul flights. It’s a shame as she seems such a nice, down-to-earth woman.’

Another neighbour said: ‘It’s not a good look when you see her jetting off to San Francisco and New York, especially when the Green Party preaches about protecting the environment.’

Given the Altrincham house has been empty for so long, one local queried whether Ms Spencer and her partner paid stamp duty for the address as their main home, or as a second property, which would attract a higher rate.

Opponent Mr Goodwin is a former politics professor at the University of Kent and before that was a politics lecturer at the University of Nottingham.

Although born in Watford, the 45-year-old’s family moved to Greater Manchester where his parents took roles as senior NHS bosses.

Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin launches his campaign in Denton and Gorton with Nigel Farage

He and his estranged partner – who have a young daughter – own a £900,000 house in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

The Green Party revealed Ms Spencer has split from her partner but remains co-owner of the properties. It did not respond to questions about the stamp duty.

A Green Party spokesperson said: ‘Ms Spencer has split from her partner but remains on the paperwork for the houses.

 said: ‘Hannah Spencer is a real life, working class, human being. That is why she is proving so popular with voters in Gorton & Denton.

‘The Green Party doesn’t believe people should be deprived of transport or holidays.

‘We do believe in making public transport easier to use by bringing the railways back into public ownership and improving bus services. 

‘We also want to see a frequent-flyer levy introduced for the tiny percentage of people who use planes like personal taxis.

‘Hannah’s ex-partner worked hard to save up and put down the deposit on an uninhabitable building that is in the process of being renovated. 

‘Hannah’s name is currently on the paperwork and, like many people who have gone through a similar process will know, it can be complex and takes time to untangle personal financial and living arrangements.’