According to major media reports, David Prescott joined the Green Party in October 2025, a year after his father John Prescott died. He appears alongside Green activists in Gorton and Denton in a Facebook post, where the caption read: 'What. A.
Day. ' The Green Party achieved its first by-election victory in history in Gorton and Denton last week, while Labour suffered one of its worst by-election defeats there, coming third behind Reform and the Greens. A Green Party source said David Prescott was one of 2,000 people who came to Gorton and Denton to help get Hannah elected, though his specific reasons for joining the party are unclear.
The Green Party poses a threat to Labour's fracturing base of progressive voters, who have drifted from Labour over issues including its stance on the war in Gaza. The Green Party leapfrogged Labour into second place in a YouGov poll for Sky News on Tuesday, with the party up four points to 21% in the poll, driven by publicity from the Gorton and Denton by-election. ' Karl Turner said John Prescott's anger would be aimed at the Labour Party for allowing progressive voters to leave for the Green Party.
David Prescott previously ran to be a Labour candidate in several seats but failed to get selected, except for Gainsborough in the 2015 general election where he lost to Conservative MP Edward Leigh. A Green Party source said David Prescott has not publicly spoken about joining the Greens out of respect to friends who are still Labour members, councillors, and MPs. The Labour Party has not officially responded to the defection, and David Prescott's current role with the Green Party remains unspecified.