Labour has held the Holborn and St Pancras seat in a parliamentary by-election, defeating Green Party leader Zack Polanski

Oct 9

3 min read

Political cartoon in London: smiling Labour woman holds rose and LABOUR HOLD sign; sad Green man sits by 32.8% amid ballot box and votes.

Labour has held the Holborn and St Pancras seat in a parliamentary by-election, defeating Green Party leader Zack Polanski in the first major electoral test of Andy Burnham’s premiership.

The contest, held on 8 October 2026, followed the resignation of former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, who had represented the north London constituency since 2015. Starmer stepped down as an MP on 1 September after leaving Downing Street earlier in the year; he was replaced as Labour leader and prime minister by Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester. Starmer cited a wish to focus on international affairs.

Sagal Abdi-Wali, the leader of Camden Council and a childhood refugee from Somalia who grew up in the borough, won with 12,292 votes (45.2 per cent). Polanski finished second on 8,928 votes (32.8 per cent). Labour’s majority was 3,364. Turnout was 38.8 per cent (around 27,200 votes), down sharply from 54.1 per cent at the 2024 general election and the lowest of any English by-election in the current parliament.

The full result was:

Labour (Sagal Abdi-Wali): 12,292 (45.2 per cent, down roughly 3.6–3.7 points)
Green (Zack Polanski): 8,928 (32.8 per cent, up 22.4 points)
Conservative (Ewan Cameron): 1,922 (7.1 per cent)
Reform UK (Pete Newman): 1,612 (5.9 per cent)
Liberal Democrat (Patrick Stillman): 924 (3.4 per cent)
Restore Britain, the Workers Party of Britain (George Galloway), Rejoin EU and several minor candidates shared the remainder, all losing their deposits.

The seat has been Labour-held since its creation in 1983. In 2024 Starmer’s majority was more than 11,000, though an independent left-wing candidate, Andrew Feinstein, took a substantial share and the Greens placed third on about 10 per cent. Local elections in Camden earlier in 2026 had shown Green strength, and Polanski made the by-election a personal priority, campaigning heavily on rent controls, public ownership of water, climate policy and the situation in Gaza. Feinstein endorsed him. Labour’s candidate faced some local criticism from pro-Palestine activists over the council’s record, but the party still held the seat comfortably in vote terms.

The result is widely read as a relief for Burnham. Labour lawmakers had turned to him partly in the hope he could stem the Green advance that had contributed to pressure on Starmer. A Green gain in one of the party’s safest London seats would have been a serious early setback. Instead, the hold came despite a large swing to the Greens and a low turnout that often favours motivated opposition campaigns.

For Polanski the outcome is a clear disappointment. He had hoped to become the Greens’ first MP in London. The party pointed to the scale of its advance—from roughly 10 per cent to 33 per cent—as evidence of progress and said the result showed voters wanted “real change.” Polanski congratulated Abdi-Wali, said he was proud of the campaign, and insisted he would continue as leader.

Former Green leader Caroline Lucas had already suggested his position could come under scrutiny after a party conference motion declaring “Zionism is racism,” which drew internal and external criticism in the final days of the campaign and which some Labour and Liberal Democrat figures claimed cost the Greens support.

Other parties were marginal. The Conservatives and Reform UK both polled in single figures, and the right-wing vote was further split by Restore Britain. George Galloway, standing for the Workers Party while based abroad, received just over 300 votes.

Abdi-Wali, in her victory remarks, spoke of the result as a signal that people who “look like me” belong in Parliament, emphasised cohesion in a diverse borough, and listed priorities including bringing Thames Water into public ownership, tackling rough sleeping and creating opportunities for young people.

The by-election does not change the government’s majority, but it offers an early snapshot of how Burnham’s Labour is faring against a resurgent Green Party on the left, at a moment when speculation about the timing of the next general election continues.