{"id":640621,"date":"2026-10-08T23:16:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T23:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/640621\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T23:16:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T23:16:18","slug":"vote-counting-under-way-in-the-holborn-and-st-pancras-by-election-follow-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/640621\/","title":{"rendered":"Vote counting under way in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election – follow live"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Analysis\"Today’s by-election is a test for Burnham and Polanskipublished at 22:03 BST<\/p>\n

22:03 BST<\/p>\n

\"\"Chris Mason
Political editor<\/p>\n

This feels like a consequential and rather crunchy by-election for several reasons.<\/p>\n

For a start, it is only happening because of the national politics of the last few years \u2013 and the resignation of Keir Starmer as prime minister. Not long after he left Downing Street, he decided to leave parliament too \u2013 vacating his seat here in Holborn and St Pancras in north London.<\/p>\n

It is also the first by-election of Andy Burnham\u2019s tenure as prime minister. It has been a safe Labour seat for a long, long time but the Green Party of England and Wales has been making waves since Zack Polanski became its leader \u2013 and the party performed well in the local elections in London in May.<\/p>\n

So it is a test for Burnham and it is a test for Polanski, who is the Green candidate in this race.<\/p>\n

\"AImage source, Reuters<\/p>\n

And that is where things get rather heated, given the huge row of the last few days. <\/p>\n

The Green Party is currently eating itself alive over a motion passed at its party conference just a matter of days ago which led to Polanski being banned from Israel and his party face criticism not just from the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies of British Jews but also from sister green parties in Europe.<\/p>\n

Polanski, who himself is Jewish, didn\u2019t vote on the motion which said Zionism is a form of racism and called for a single Palestinian state, meaning no Israel. <\/p>\n

The motion passed. Polanski\u2019s team said he was instead campaigning here in Holborn and St Pancras at the time.<\/p>\n

He has been saying no to interviews with journalists in the last few days \u2013 the BBC\u2019s requests have been declined. <\/p>\n

When my colleague Emilia Belli found him campaigning earlier today, she politely but persistently put questions to him, but he didn\u2019t answer them. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the prime minister has weighed in, arguing that the motion amounted to \u201ca completely wrong decision, a terrible judgment on the part of the Green Party of England and Wales – in effect, ruling out a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine, and for that reason it shouldn\u2019t be supported in any way, shape or form.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AndyImage source, ReutersImage caption, <\/p>\n

The prime minister called the motion a “terrible judgment” on the part of the Greens<\/p>\n

Responding to that, the Green Party of England and Wales have put out this statement: <\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been an emotive issue and is complex. It has rightly caused much discussion, and needs to be taken in the context that Israel\u2019s behaviour has had. Israel has been responsible for a genocide, ethnic cleansing and the killing of children, and we’ve had a political establishment which has not only turned a blind eye but provided support.<\/p>\n

Zack has made an unequivocal commitment that no Jewish person will be excluded or denied a voice because they are a member of a synagogue or communal organisation that endorses Zionism.\u201d<\/p>\n

One figure in the party said to me that \u201cZack has created a monster that he either can\u2019t or won\u2019t control.\u201d Plenty in the party are livid.<\/p>\n

We expect to get to put some questions to Polanski after the vote \u2013 it will be very interesting to see how he answers them, and how, even whether, he can move the party on from the biggest row of his leadership so far.<\/p>\n

As for the by-election contest, the Greens sound decidedly less upbeat about the result than Labour do. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today’s by-election is a test for Burnham and Polanskipublished at 22:03 BST 22:03 BST Chris MasonPolitical editor This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-640621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}