Labour Retains Starmer’s Former Seat in Holborn and St Pancras By-Election, Defeating Green Leader Polanski

LONDON – The governing Labour Party has held the parliamentary seat of Holborn and St Pancras, vacated by former Prime Minister Keir Starmer, after seeing off a strong challenge from the Green Party in a by-election on Friday. The result is an early electoral boost for Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali, leader of the local council, won the central London constituency with 12,292 votes. Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who stood personally in the contest, came second with 8,928 votes.

Labour had been widely expected to hold the seat. The contest was nonetheless seen as an important test of Burnham’s effort to rebuild support among the party’s core urban voters after two difficult years in government under Starmer. Starmer was replaced as Prime Minister in July and resigned from Parliament in September, having lost his party’s backing after a series of policy reversals, missteps and heavy losses in the May local elections.

In her victory speech, Abdi-Wali paid tribute to Starmer and said she looked forward to working with the Prime Minister on issues including housing.

The defeat is a setback for Polanski, who has sought to reposition the Greens as an “eco-populist” movement capable of drawing voters away from Labour. That strategy had produced results earlier in the year, when the Greens made record gains in London’s local elections, largely at Labour’s expense, on the back of Starmer’s unpopularity. Since Burnham took office, however, the Greens have slipped in national polling. Burnham has introduced several policy positions that appeal to left-leaning voters, including a firmer stance on Israel and a more ambitious approach to relations with the European Union.

The by-election also came at the end of a difficult week for the Green leader. His leadership has faced questions after party members approved a motion describing Zionism as racism, a decision criticised by Jewish organisations, rival parties and most of the Green Party’s own lawmakers.

Polanski acknowledged after the result that many voters had told him during the campaign that they wanted to give the new Prime Minister a chance.

Although the populist Reform Party remains Labour’s principal rival in national opinion polls, the governing party is seeking to win back progressive voters who had moved to the Greens, ahead of a general election due by mid-2029.