Labour retains Starmer’s former London seat after Green challenge

Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali won the Holborn and St Pancras byelection in north London on 9 October, defeating Zack Polanski, the leader of the Green Party, in the seat formerly held by Keir Starmer. Labour retained the constituency as Andy Burnham faced his first major electoral test as prime minister, according to the reported result.¹²³⁴

Result and turnout

Abdi-Wali received 45.17% of the vote, while Polanski won 32.81%, Sky News reported. EL PAÍS similarly put the shares at 45% and 33% respectively, and reported that Reform UK finished third with 7%. The turnout was 38.7%, reported as the lowest in an English byelection during this parliament.¹³⁴

The contest followed Starmer’s resignation from the seat in September. Labour had held Holborn and St Pancras continuously since the constituency was created in 1983, according to EL PAÍS. According to the Guardian, Starmer’s margin in the constituency exceeded 11,000 votes in the 2024 general election.¹⁴

A test for Labour and the Greens

The byelection was viewed by the Guardian as a test both of Burnham’s ability to consolidate Labour support and of Polanski’s appeal to voters on Labour’s progressive flank. The Greens had hoped to build on their February victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection, where they overturned a Labour majority, according to the Guardian.¹

Polling during the campaign gave mixed signals. One YouGov survey gave the Greens 21%, several points above Labour, the Guardian said, but a subsequent poll showed them trailing Burnham’s party. Polanski had described the race as "really on a knife-edge" before the result.¹

The outcome was reported as reassurance for Burnham and a boost for Labour. The New York Times described the vote as an early test for Burnham, Starmer’s successor, while Sky News said the result raised strategic questions for the Greens after their defeat in a seat they had targeted.¹²³

Green Party dispute

The result coincided with a dispute within the Green Party about a conference proposal defining Zionism as racist and advocating one Palestinian state in place of Israel. According to the Guardian and EL PAÍS, the proposal was approved even though four of the party’s five MPs opposed it.¹⁴

Polanski abstained in the motion vote while campaigning in the constituency, according to the Guardian. Caroline Lucas, a former Green leader, called on him to provide leadership that she said had been absent during the vote. After losing, Polanski said: "Of course I can carry on as leader of the Green party."¹

Abdi-Wali’s win

The Guardian reported that Abdi-Wali, 42, leads Camden council and came to Britain as a refugee child when her family escaped Somalia’s civil war. EL PAÍS reported that she became the first woman to represent Holborn and St Pancras. After the result, she said: "I hope this moment says something about who gets to belong."¹⁴

George Galloway also stood in the byelection and received 314 votes, the Guardian reported. Polanski’s vote total was lower than the combined tally won by the Green Party and Andrew Feinstein in the constituency in 2024, according to the same report.¹