Labour wins Holborn and St Pancras byelection; Polanski ‘absolutely’ intends to remain Greens leader – UK politics live | Politics
Labour wins byelection after Greens fall short
Here’s a fuller rundown on Labour’s win in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection that has been a high-stakes battle for the left of British politics.
The byelection, called after the former prime minister Keir Starmer resigned from the seat in September, was considered a two-horse race between the Labour candidate, Sagal Abdi-Wali, and the Green party leader, Zack Polanski.
Abdi-Wali recieved 12,292 votes to Polanski’s 8,928, Sammy Gecsoyler reports.
Turnout was 38.7%, the lowest for any byelection held in England during this parliament and 15.4% down from 2024.
The Greens conceded defeat shortly before the result was announced, with a party spokesperson saying “taking the fight to Labour in one of its safest seats shows just how far the Greens have come”.
Labour’s victory will be a relief for Andy Burnham in his first big electoral test as prime minister, and reinforces polling that shows he has recovered some public support lost by Starmer, his predecessor in Downing Street.
See the full report here:
Key events
Polanski ‘absolutely’ intends to remain Greens leader
Zack Polanski has said he definitely intends to stay on as leader of the Greens despite his byelection defeat.
Asked on Sky News if he would continue as party leader, he said: “Yes absolutely, that’s what leaders do.”
He also said after the poll result that it had not been a mistake standing in the north London seat, saying he was happy to stand in elections.
I don’t think it was a mistake at all, I think it has been an opportunity to present Green party values, to talk about rent controls, tackling the climate crisis, nationalising Thames Water. It’s been amazing to speak to people in Holborn and St Pancras, I’ve really enjoyed that.
Photograph: Toby Shepheard/Reuters
Labour wins byelection after Greens fall short
Here’s a fuller rundown on Labour’s win in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection that has been a high-stakes battle for the left of British politics.
The byelection, called after the former prime minister Keir Starmer resigned from the seat in September, was considered a two-horse race between the Labour candidate, Sagal Abdi-Wali, and the Green party leader, Zack Polanski.
Abdi-Wali recieved 12,292 votes to Polanski’s 8,928, Sammy Gecsoyler reports.
Turnout was 38.7%, the lowest for any byelection held in England during this parliament and 15.4% down from 2024.
The Greens conceded defeat shortly before the result was announced, with a party spokesperson saying “taking the fight to Labour in one of its safest seats shows just how far the Greens have come”.
Labour’s victory will be a relief for Andy Burnham in his first big electoral test as prime minister, and reinforces polling that shows he has recovered some public support lost by Starmer, his predecessor in Downing Street.
See the full report here:
Peter Walker
Labour campaigned hard in this byelection, fielding the 42-year-old leader of Camden council as the party’s candidate. Sagal Abdi-Wali arrived in London in the early 90s – speaking no English – after fleeing war in Somalia with her four brothers and her mother, who trained as a lawyer in Somalia.
In a pre-poll message to byelection voters, prime minister Andy Burnham said:
This area gave Sagal a home when she arrived here as a refugee in the 1990s. Camden gave Sagal and her family hope. Now she wants to give that back to the communities that have always been there for her. It’s hard to think of someone more committed to their local area and the care of people than Sagal.
Abdi-Wali says byelection win ‘deeply personal to me’
Returning to Sagal Abdi-Wali’s acceptance speech, the newly elected Labour MP said that whether people voted for her or not, “I promise that I will work every day to do whatever I can and all I can to improve your life”.
This moment means something deeply personal to me – to represent the place that gave me a home, and my family a home, gave me opportunity and helped shape the person I am today.
Camden gave me a community and instilled in me a belief in social justice, in equality and in fairness. And to now have the privilege of representing this same community in parliament is something that I will carry with enormous pride and humility.
I hope this moment also says something about who gets to belong. For people who look like me, I hope they see themselves reflected in this place, and know that their path too belongs here.
This is Camden, and this is Britain.
Sagal Abdi-Wali is speaking and saying she is “deeply honoured” to be chosen by her constituency and that her commitment to it “runs deep”.
From the bottom of my heart I want to say thank you.
More soon.
Labour declared byelection winner
Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali has been declared the byelection winner with 12,292 votes. Zack Polanski came in second for the Greens with 8,928, while the Conservatives’ Ewan Cameron polled third with 1,922.
The byelection candidates have gathered in the vote tally room at Camden Council headquarters in north London and it appears a declaration of the results is imminent.
Circling back to Caroline Lucas, the former Green party leader said shortly after the byelection polls closed that Zack Polanski had made a “mistake not to show leadership” over the Zionism policy vote, but she declined to say if he should resign over it.
“He should have been there and he should have voted,” she told BBC Newsnight.
I would’ve hoped that he would have really been a very strong critic of this motion, because the motion was flawed from top to bottom, in my view.
Lucas said she expected he would face a lot criticism from fellow Greens now the byelection was over. But asked if he should resign, she said:
I think let’s just see what happens in the coming days and weeks … obviously he has been completed taken up with this byelection. I want him to speak now about what’s happened, I want him to show the leadership that was frankly missing on Sunday. I think the jury is out about whether or not he will do that but I very much hope he will.
Activists in Camden have suggested the Greens’ decision to back the anti-Zionism motion has cost them votes in the byelection.
Councillors for both Labour the Liberal Democrats told the Press Association that voters had informed them they would not be backing the Green party after it passed the motion last weekend calling Zionism racism.
One councillor said people had been “clearly angry” about the issue when they had spoken to them while canvassing.
Greens concede byelection defeat
Sammy Gecsoyler
The Greens have conceded defeat in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, saying they have come a “close second” in the contest.
A party spokesperson said:
It is clear now we will come a close second in this by-election. Taking the fight to Labour in one of its safest seats shows just how far the Greens have come.
Voters want us to keep Labour’s feet to the fire on affordable housing, public ownership of water and the climate crisis. Greens will be there every single day, holding Labour to account and demanding the change people voted for.
The loss will be disappointing for Zack Polanski, who was hoping to replicate the party’s seismic win in Gordon and Denton earlier this year. Thousands of party activists descended on the north London constituency to knock doors but it appears their efforts fell short.
The results caps off a bruising week Polanski and his eco-populist party, which fell into turmoil after it voted on Sunday to adopt a policy declaring Zionism as a form of racism, sparking internal division that continued after polls closed. Former party leader Caroline Lucas refused to say whether Polanski should stand down within an hour of polls shutting while speaking to BBC Newsnight.
The Greens have conceded defeat in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection.
A party spokesperson is quoted as saying: “It is clear now we will come a close second.”
More details soon.
Sammy Gecsoyler
Party officials are gathering as the result is expected imminently.
Sammy Gecsoyler
From the count here in Camden council’s swanky headquarters, signs suggest a Labour-win is imminent.
After the polls closed, the Greens issued a fairly downbeat statement on the “positive campaign” the party ran in “what is one of Labour’s safest seats” – hardly a barnstorming comment suggesting confidence in their chances tonight.
A Green loss could spell further disquiet in the party after a motion terming Zionism as a form of racism passed at its conference. Shortly after polls closed, former Caroline Lucas refused to say whether Polanski should stand down.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight, the former Green leader said: “I want him to show the leadership that was frankly missing on Sunday,” when the motion was voted on. Polanski was campaigning in the constituency instead.
Turnout is 38.7%, the lowest for any byelection held in England during this parliament and 15.4% down from 2024.
Inside the vote counting room – in pictures
Green party leader Zack Polanski has been seen arriving at Camden Council chambers in north London as the byelection count continues. Here are some scenes from the room.
Zack Polanski’s had a tricky week leading up to the byelection amid criticism he showed a lack of leadership over a policy equating Zionism with racism adopted at last weekend’s Green party conference
Polanski missed the vote on it in Brighton in order to campaign in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection.
But the Greens’ adoption of the policy has been highly contentious – drawing sharp rebukes from mainstream UK parties, British Jewish groups and Israel – while also prompting four of five Green MPs to publicly reject the move.
The motion said Zionism – the movement for a Jewish state – should be “treated as any other form of racism” and called for Israel to be replaced by a single Palestinian state. The head of the Jewish Greens condemned it and said she might leave the party, although it was supported by some Jewish Greens.
Even members who supported large parts of the motion were unhappy about its narrow conception of Zionism which some fear could brand those in favour of the idea of a Jewish homeland – but not specifically the modern-day state of Israel – as racist.
The English and Welsh Greens are facing international ostracism after their adoption of the policy drew dismay from the group representing European Greens.
Who are the candidates?
A quick reminder of the byelection candidates in Holborn and St Pancras:
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Labour – Sagal Abdi-Wali
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Green party – Zack Polanski
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Conservative party – Ewan Cameron
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Reform UK – Peter Newman
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Liberal Democrats – Patrick Thomas Stillman
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Restore Britain – Tyler Kurtis Johnson
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Workers party – George Galloway
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Rejoin EU – Briony Anne Lonbay Kapoor
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Climate party – Clare Fischer
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UK Voice – Ketankumar Pipaliya
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Ukip – Ben Walker
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Monster Raving Loony party – Barmy Brunch
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Communist League – Jonathan Silberman
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Christian Peoples Alliance – Helen Spiby-Vann
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Independent – Tom Darwood
Peter Walker
Holborn and St Pancras is, under normal circumstances, a Labour stronghold.
Keir Starmer won it with a majority of 11,500 at the 2024 general election despite strong challenges from the Greens and a leftwing independent candidate, who is not standing again and has endorsed Zack Polanski. In 2019 Starmer won by nearly 28,000 votes.
Polanski has run a highly energetic campaign. He has mobilised a large numbers of supporters to knock on doors, mimicking February’s Gorton and Denton byelection, where the Greens overcame an even bigger Labour majority to take the seat.
However, the political landscape has changed. Shortly after Gorton and Denton, YouGov polling put the Greens briefly above Labour, on a peak of 21%. The most recent equivalent had Polanksi’s party on 11%, 16 points behind Labour.
Burnham, who succeeded Starmer as prime minister in July, is seen as having revitalised Labour, and used his speech at the party’s annual conference last month to set out a more ambitious and left-leaning collection of policies.
Polanski’s fortunes, in contrast, appear to have declined, especially since last weekend’s Green party conference where a vote by members to adopt a policy equating Zionism with racism and calling for Israel to be replaced by a single Palestinian state prompted condemnation and splits in the party.
Counting under way in Holborn and St Pancras byelection
Hello and welcome to the UK politics live blog.
Counting is currently under way in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection in north London, where voters are choosing a replacement for former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Starmer announced his decision to step down as an MP in September after being ousted from No 10 by Andy Burnham.
Camden council has said the result is expected to be called between 2:30-4am UK time.
We’ll bring you the latest developments as we get them.
