Britain’s governing Labour Party has held the London seat of Holborn and St Pancras in a by-election, with Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali declared the winner on Friday 9 October, according to the Associated Press. Abdi-Wali received 12,292 votes, 45 per cent of the total, against 8,928 votes, just under 33 per cent, for Green Party leader Zack Polanski, the AP reported. On those declared totals, her lead was 3,364 votes. The seat became vacant after the resignation of former prime minister Keir Starmer, AP said.
The Candidates
Abdi-Wali is the leader of Camden Council and came to Britain from Somalia as a child refugee, according to AP and Al Jazeera, which drew on Reuters reporting. “I hope this moment also says something about who gets to belong,” she said after the result, AP reported.
Polanski is not a member of parliament, and AP noted questions about whether he can continue to lead the Greens from outside the House of Commons. Polanski told Sky News on Friday that being a party leader is difficult but that he was ready to continue, AP reported. Al Jazeera reported that he congratulated Abdi-Wali and said one in three voters had backed the Greens in the constituency.
Context
AP reported that the Greens have grown quickly under Polanski and beat Labour in a special election last year. It said his campaign was overshadowed by the party’s decision earlier this month, by a vote of members, to declare Zionism a form of racism. According to AP, the motion was condemned by most elected Green lawmakers and divided the party, and Israel declared it antisemitic and barred Polanski, who is Jewish, from entering the country. Al Jazeera reported that Polanski did not vote on the motion and that the Greens now have five MPs, compared with one in 2023.
Reuters, as carried by Al Jazeera, said the result had been expected and would buoy Prime Minister Andy Burnham, recently installed by lawmakers who feared that Starmer’s unpopularity could open the way for a challenge from Reform UK. Al Jazeera reported that Labour has held the seat since its creation in 1983, and that in the 2024 general election Starmer won it with 49 per cent, with independent candidate Andrew Feinstein second on 19 per cent.
Why It Matters
A single by-election is a limited guide to national opinion, and turnout was not reported in the sources reviewed. Even so, the result shows that Labour retained a seat it was widely expected to hold while the Greens, who came second, face questions of their own about leadership and direction.
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