Labour wins Holborn and St Pancras byelection; Polanski ‘absolutely’ intends to remain Green party leader – UK politics live

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 Starmerresigned 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. Speaking to the Guardian after her win, Abdi-Wali said local people at the school gates found the Greens’ Zionism motion “divisive”, adding: It just speaks to the larger divisive discourse that set off and I don’t want to engage in that kind of thing. On Labour’s stance on Palestine, she said: The work Ed Miliband has been doing on Gaza, Palestine and Israel has resonated really well with local people. He’s been taking action and not just speaking. Asked after the result whether he believed Zionism was racism, Polanski said he “grew up in a Zionist household” with the “idea that region was a land without a people and a people without a land”. But he said after educating himself he doesn’t “believe that’s true, and what we’re seeing is an ongoing genocide and the displacement of the Palestinian people. I believe that’s clearly racist.” Ahead of the vote, former Green leader Caroline Lucas suggested Polanski could face a threat to his leadership if he lost. Lucas, the three-time former Green Party leader who was its first MP, said people should “see what happens in the coming days and weeks” when asked about his future the previous evening on BBC Newsnight. She pointed to Polanski’s failure to take part in the controversial anti-Zionism motion on Sunday, saying he “should have been there and he should have voted”. Polanski did not directly answer when asked if he believed that Zionism is racism after the by-election result, but said: The displacement of the Palestinian people, the genocide is clearly racist. He also denied he had lost control of his party. I don’t think that’s true at all. I’ve got a party that was 55,000, 60,000 members when I was running for leader, it’s now 220,000. Any member is entitled to their opinion. We’re a democratic grassroots party. Result is victory for diversity that cannot be 'casually undone', says Abdi-Wali New Labour MP Sagal Abdi-Wali said her win in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection was a victory for diversity and warned cohesion should not be “casually undone”. Her comments came after Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf attacked her candidacy as a British-Somalian shortly after the byelection was called. Abdi-Wali said she hoped “people like (her)” would feel like they also “belong here”. Speaking after her victory was announced in Camden council’s headquarters in north London, she said: 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. We have a responsibility to defend what we’ve built, and pass it on. Hope is not naive. Without hope there is nothing to build on, and nothing to build for. People need to believe that politics can make their lives better and that their communities can thrive and that tomorrow can be better than today.” The Holborn and St Pancras turnout of 38.76% is lower than in some other recent byelections, including 47.62% at Gorton and Denton in February. At that one, Hannah Spencer won for the Green party and took the seat from Labour. There was 58.7% turnout at the Makerfield byelection in June that paved Andy Burnham’s way to become prime minister. And it was 44.37% in Clacton in August, when Nigel Farage kept his seat but Count Binface took more than a quarter of the vote. While Zack Polanski has vowed to stay on as Greens leader, the party put a bright spin on what it called an “incredible result” with the increased vote share he brought the party in the byelection. “Achieving a huge swing in one of Labour’s safest seats – an increase of 22% in vote share since the general election – is an incredible result for the Green party, and during a honeymoon period for the new PM,” a Greens spokesperson quoted by PA Media said. We are disappointed to miss out tonight but any ideas of a return to the cosy two-party system is just wishful thinking on the part of the establishment. We are here to stay and just getting started. The voters have delivered a message to the Labour government today. They want real change. 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. 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 Starmerresigned 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. Labour campaigned hard in this byelection, fielding the 42-year-old leader of Camden council as the party’s candidate. Sagal Abdi-Waliarrived 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. 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.