Labour has won the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, with Camden Council leader Sagal Abdi-Wali beating Green leader Zack Polanski into second place.
Abdi-Wali won 12,292 (45.1%) votes to Polanski’s 8,928 (32.8%), a majority of 3,364. The by-election was triggered by Keir Starmer’s resignation as MP for the seat. Turnout was 38.8%.
The Conservatives’ Ewan Cameron came third on 1,922 votes (7.1%). Reform UK’s Pete Newman was fourth on 1,612 (5.9%), ahead of the Liberal Democrats’ Patrick Stillman on 924 (3.4%) and Restore Britain’s Tyler Johnson on 692 (2.5%).
Labour has held the seat since it was created in 1983. Starmer won 48.9% of the vote in 2024.
Abdi-Wali, who becomes the first woman to represent the constituency, said it was an “extraordinary honour”.
In her victory speech, she said Labour’s campaign had “given people something to believe in” and that “people need to believe that politics can make their lives better.”
The new Labour MP said she is “deeply grateful” to her immediate predecessors, Starmer and the late Frank Dobson, for their service and “for the foundations that they’ve left for the next generation”.
She said: “I am deeply honoured that our community in Camden has trusted in me to be the next member of parliament for Holborn and St Pancras.
“From the bottom of my heart, I want to say thank you, and whether you voted for me or not, my commitment to this community runs deep. I promise that I will work every day to do whatever I can and all I can to improve your life and to improve the life of you and your family.
“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.”
She said her victory “says something about who gets to belong”.
Abdi-Wali was born in Somalia and arrived in London in the early 1990s. She spoke no English at the time. She arrived in London after fleeing war in Somalia with her four brothers and her mother.
She added: “This is Camden and this is Britain. I want this to demonstrate that you do not have to surrender your hope to succeed. You can lead with optimism, with kindness and with determination.
“I want young people to know that their background does not determine the size of their dreams and that public life is a place for them to make a difference. I came here as a child, and this place gave me so much: a home, education, friendships, a community and opportunity, and it made me who I am.”
The contest was fought against the backdrop of the row over the Green Party motion declaring Zionism a form of racism, which passed at the party’s conference in Brighton last week.
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Asked whether she believed the motion had contributed to her victory, Abdi-Wali told BBC News she did not think so. But she said constituents had told her how “scared they were” by it.
Polanski, who did not take part in the vote on the “Zionism is racism” motion, gave his first interviews on it since Green Party conference.
He said the displacement of the Palestinian people was racist, but did not say whether he supported the motion itself.
The Green leader stated: “I grew up in a Zionist household and I grew up with the idea that that region was a land without a people and a people without a land. And as I’ve educated myself, learnt, discovered, I don’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 racism.”
Pressed on this point, Polanski responded: “As I say, the displacement of the Palestinian people, the genocide, is clearly racist.”
He added: “What I do believe is that any state should have equal rights and that shouldn’t be based on faith or religion. That should be based on international human rights law and upholding equal rights for everyone.”
Asked if he was going to remain in his post as leader, Polanski replied: “Of course.”
He told broadcasters: “We are going to build and we are going to grow…
“So many people told me on the doorsteps that they want to give Andy Burnham a chance. Well, he’s got a chance now. Let’s see what he does with it.”
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