Labour wins Holborn and St Pancras byelection;
Polanski ‘absolutely’ intends to remain Green party leader – UK politics live
Sagal Abdi-Wali defeats Green party leader Zack
Polanski to retain the Holborn and St Pancras seat for Labour
03.46 BST
Labour
wins byelection after Greens fall short
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 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, 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.
Updated
at
03.49 BST
14m ago
08.49 BST
Here is
an extract from Prof Sir John Curtice’s assessment of the Holborn and St
Pancras byelection in an article for the Times.
With 45
per cent of the vote, Labour was much further ahead of the Greens, on 33 per
cent, than they had been in May. Yet, Labour’s tally was still four points down
on the 49 per cent Sir Keir won in 2024 — a figure that, as in many
constituencies with a substantial Muslim population, was well down on the 66
per cent the party won locally in 2019.
In short,
the result confirmed that, while it is enjoying a substantial recovery from the
nadir to which the party fell in the final months of Sir Keir’s tenure, Labour
still has significant ground left to recover before it is in a position where
it might win another Commons majority.
Curtice
also points out that the results confirm that Restore Britain is a problem for
Reform UK. (See 6.15am.) The Conservative party came third, but Reform UK would
beaten the Tories if its candidate had also had just half the votes that went
to Restore.
28m ago
08.35 BST
And this
is what Bridget Phillipson, the Labour party chair, told Times Radio about the
byelection result.
I think
it demonstrates that Labour’s message of hope is really cutting through, that
people don’t just want parties like Labour to talk about the progressive change
this country needs but they want to see it delivered in action, and that’s what
we’re focused on every day as a Labour government.
The
things that really matter to people about the cost of living, about issues
around homelessness as Sagal [Abdi-Wali] was talking about.
In Sagal
we had a fantastic candidate who really resonated with the public, backed up by
Labour’s clear message of hope and I couldn’t be more pleased.
32m ago
08.30 BST
Bridget
Phillipson, the Labour party chair, told Sky News that the Holborn and St
Pancras byelection result showed that Andy Burnham had “got off to an
incredibly strong start” as PM.
36m ago
08.27 BST
Holborn
and St Pancras byelection loss will disappoint Greens, but there may also be
relief - Peter Walker's analysis
Here is
Peter Walker’s assessment of the Holborn and St Pancras byelection result. He
says Zack Polanski should be relieved his result wasn’t any worse.
Here is
an extract.
Polanski
got just under 33% of the vote, well above anyone else apart from Abdi-Wali, a
proportion which shows that in an another election, and up against a Labour
party not enjoying a Burnham bounce, the Greens could still be highly
competitive in seats like these …
It was
notable that after the result, Polanski had to insist that he intended to stay
as Green leader. “Yes absolutely, that’s what leaders do,” he replied.
While
some in the Greens had questioned Polanski’s decision to contest a seat in
north London, rather than east London, where he lives, his allies make the
point that Nigel Farage took eight tries to become an MP.
Either
way, the result has not made Polanski’s position any worse. Had the Green vote
collapsed he would have been under very intense pressure. As it stands, he must
try to reassure sceptics in the party before seeking re-election in a year from
now, under the party’s policy of two-year terms for leaders.
41m ago
08.22 BST
Polanski
plays down claims his leadership under threat, and says he will stand again for
parliament
Under
Green party rules, leaders have to get re-elected every two years, which means
there will be a contest next summer. Asked how confident he was of being able
to win again, Polanski told Sky News:
What I’m
experiencing is the immense amount of people who are saying they’ve never been
prouder to be a Green party member.
It is
being difficult being leader of any party, particularly the Green party or a
decentralised party.
Very
often the media – and I think this is fine that they do that - talk about the
Green -arty as if we’re like the other parties. But that is a different kind of
party. We’re led by the grassroots and ultimately the leader is partly a
primary spokesperson for the party. That is difficult. But I signed up for that
difficult job, and I’m more than ready to continue.
Asked if
he would stand again to be an MP, he replied:
I want to
be an MP. I don’t think it’s the be all and end all. I think I’ve demonstrated
over the last year that you can create change from outside of parliament.
But, if
another seat came up in London where he had a connection, he would stand again,
he said.
47m ago
08.16 BST
Polanski
rejects claim by Caroline Lucas that he failed to show leadership as Greens
debating Zionism motion
Asked
about Caroline Lucas, the former Green party leader, saying that he failed to
show leadership during the Zionism debate and that he should have voted (see
2.55am), Polanski replied:
There was
a national byelection going on, one of the most important elections in our
recent history. And people in that election said they wanted to see me on the
ground. They wanted to see me dealing with local issues. So I did exactly that.
I went on the ground and dealt with local issues.
In terms
of me and Caroline, I think we’re actually united in making sure that we want
to push this government for a two-way arms embargo to stop selling arms
licenses and F-35 components to fighter jets, to make sure that we’ve got
boycott, divestment and sanctions, and to push Andy Burnham.
Ed
Miliband, the foreign secretary, has said many people were right about Gaza,
but they’re still arresting pensioners for holding up cardboard signs saying I
support Palestine Action.
Polanski
accepted that Lucas was still a “significant figure” in the party, but he said
people in the party were entitled to hold different views.
54m ago
08.09 BST
Polanski
says it's 'absurd' to say 'Zionism is racism' motion antisemitic
Asked
about claims from the Board of Deputies of British Jews and others that the
motion was anti-Jewish, Polanksi replied:
I think
that’s absurd. And I think it’s actually dangerous rhetoric, because we really
need to separate antisemitism from criticism of the Israeli government.
I say
that as a Jewish man, but actually the co-composer of this motion was a
Holocaust survivor.
So I
think we do need to respect that there’s a diversity of opinion amongst the
Jewish communities.
1h ago
08.05 BST
Polanski
says he agrees with 'substance' of Green 'Zionism is racism' motion, but not
actual wording passed at conference
On Sky
News, Sam Coates, the deputy political editor, said the Green vote in the
Holborn and St Pancras byelection was broadly the same as it had been in the
constituency in the local elections in May. He put it to Zack Polanski that
this showed there was no evidence that Polanski was bringing “electoral
stardust” to the campaign.
Polanski
said he had been party leader at the time of the May elections. And he claimed
that, in the campaign, he felt people were “very excited” by his campaign.
He also
said the Greens had achieved their two best byelection results ever under his
leadership.
Asked if
he accepted the Green party conference vote for the “Zionism is racism” motion
had been disastrous for the party, he replied:
I think
what this demonstrated is that we do politics differently to the other parties.
In other parties, [the] leadership decide the policy. They decide how
everything goes.
Polanski
said Labour deliberately chose to hold the byelection a few days after the
Green party’s conference.
Asked if
he regretted the fact that the “Zionism is racism” motion was passed, he
replied:
I grew up
in a Zionist household. I grew up with this idea of a land without people, a
people without a land [the Zionist argument that, when Jews moved to Israel to
found a state, there was no one else living there.]
But in
recent years I’ve been discovering what happened to those people in the land.
They were displaced. And at the moment there’s a genocide that our government
is not just complicit in, but actively selling arms licenses to.
And so I
think that is a racist ideology.
Asked if
he supported the motion, Polanski said:
I would
have supported the motion as amended. It wasn’t amended. So no.
Ultimately
I agree with the substance of the motion. Where I disagree is the idea the
Green party should be deciding what the future of the region looks like.
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