Labour retains Keir Starmer’s seat in London byelection
Labour has held on to Keir Starmer’s old seat in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, seeing off a challenge from Green Party leader Zack Polanski and thwarting his attempt to become an MP. Labour’s candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali won 12,292 votes in the north London seat, beating Polanski who received 8,928. Turnout was 39 per cent, well below the 54 per cent of constituents who voted at the 2024 general election. Abdi-Wali, a Somalia-born refugee and leader of Camden council, will enter Westminster when parliament returns from recess on Monday. The result will be hailed by Labour as a boost for prime minister Andy Burnham and evidence that the party can win back voters on the left who have been drifting to the Greens. Polanski had said “we know we can win here” when putting himself forward for the Holborn and St Pancras seat, one of Labour’s safest. It became vacant after Starmer stepped down as an MP following his resignation as prime minister. Green activists had flooded into the area, and Polanski even encouraged members to cancel tickets to the party conference in Brighton last weekend to join him in campaigning. But he failed to recreate the Greens’ shock victory over Labour at the Gorton and Denton by-election in February. The Green vote in Holborn tripled from 10.4 per cent to 32.8 per cent compared with that received in the general election. Andrew Feinstein, an independent left-winger who received 19 per cent in 2024, did not stand in Thursday’s by-election. A Green spokesperson admitted the party was “disappointed” but described the result as a “huge swing” in one of Labour’s safest seats. “The voters have delivered a message to the Labour government today. They want real change, they want rent controls, they want to see an end to the privatised water rip-off and they want to see justice for Palestinians,” the person said. “On the climate crisis, Labour will not have an easy political ride if they bring in new North Sea drilling.” Burnham’s government had delayed contentious decisions on two North Sea fossil fuel projects until after the by-election. Yet Polanski’s failure to win is likely to increase questions over his leadership and whether he can turn the Greens around. The Green Party’s standing in opinion polls has slumped since Burnham took power in July, while Labour’s has risen. Labour is now on 27 per cent versus 11 per cent for the Greens. He was already under pressure after party members backed a controversial “Zionism is Racism” motion at the conference, which has been heavily criticised by UK Jewish groups for stoking anti-Semitism. Two Green councillors have quit the party, while senior Greens have described it as “divisive”. Polanski avoided voting on the motion, which calls for a single Palestinian state to replace Israel, and senior figures in the party have privately criticised his inability to control the Greens’ more radical activists. Former party leader Caroline Lucas declined to back Polanski when asked if he should stand down on Thursday, telling BBC Newsnight she was “sure” he would face additional criticism once the by-election was over. “Let’s just see what happens in the coming days and weeks,” Lucas said. “I think it was a mistake not to show leadership on this and I think it was a mistake not to be there to vote.” Under Polanski, Green Party membership has more than tripled to above 200,000, with many new members motivated by the party’s critical stance on Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza . Long-standing Green members are concerned, however, that the party’s traditional environmental message risks being crowded out by activists’ focus on Gaza, with new members now holding significant sway within the party. Co-deputy leader Mothin Ali, a councillor in Leeds, voted in favour of the “Zionism is Racism” motion even as four of the party’s five MPs opposed it. Abdi-Wali said it was an “extraordinary honour” to become the first female MP for the constituency. “People need to believe that politics can make their lives better,” she said. She said she wanted to “tackle rough sleeping while addressing the wider housing crisis” and hoped to see Thames Water “brought into public ownership”. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026 Mark Paul: Andy Burnham's first ballot box test