Labour has seen off the Greens to win the Holborn and St Pancras byelection in a result that will reassure Andy Burnham and dent Zack Polanski’s position as a decisive power player on the left of British politics.
The byelection, called after the former prime minister Keir Starmer resigned from the seat in September, was considered a two-horse race between the Labour candidate, Sagal Abdi-Wali, and the Green party leader, Polanski. Abdi-Wali received 12,292 votes, 45% of the vote, to Polanski’s 8,928, 33% of the vote.
Turnout was 38.7%, the lowest for any byelection held in England during this parliament and 15.4% down from the 2024 general election.
