Labour defeats Green leader Polanski in Holborn and St Pancras by-election
publishers 29articles 51first reported 7 Oct, 10:08 UTCdeveloping since 8 Oct · 9 editions
Labour retained the north London parliamentary seat of Holborn and St Pancras on Thursday, with candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali defeating Green Party leader Zack Polanski in the by-election triggered by former Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s resignation.
Abdi-Wali, a local council leader who came to Britain as a child refugee from Somalia in the 1990s, won 45% of the vote, while Polanski received 33%, according to the Guardian. Labour has held the constituency continuously since it was created in 1983.
Polanski said the Greens had tripled their vote share and recorded their second-best by-election result. He rejected suggestions that he could not continue as leader, saying Green members would ultimately decide the party’s leadership.
The defeat followed a period in which Green support fell from polling highs of 21% after the party won February’s Gorton and Denton by-election to about 10% to 11%. Polanski has also faced criticism over his absence from a Green conference debate that resulted in the adoption of a motion equating Zionism with racism. Former Green leader Caroline Lucas said he should have attended and voted, while Vivien Lichtenstein, leader of the Jewish Greens, called for him to step down.
Polanski, 43, became leader of the Green Party of England and Wales in September 2025 and has described his politics as “eco-populist.”
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 2 with the publisher's own text; 7 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one (6 if wire copies count as one too); this version written 30 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
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- Given to the writer
- 8, 2 with the article's own text
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- This version written
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- kept as written
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