{"id":796410,"date":"2026-10-08T23:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T23:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/796410\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T23:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T23:00:09","slug":"polls-close-in-holborn-and-st-pancras-byelection-as-labour-hopes-to-retain-seat-holborn-and-st-pancras-byelection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/796410\/","title":{"rendered":"Polls close in Holborn and St Pancras byelection as Labour hopes to retain seat | Holborn and St Pancras byelection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Polls have closed in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection<\/a>, a contest seen as a test of whether Andy Burnham can unite Labour\u2019s voters or whether Zack Polanski can peel off support from the party\u2019s progressive flank.<\/p>\n

Labour is seeking to retain Keir Starmer\u2019s former north London seat, where he won a majority of more than 11,000 votes in the 2024 general election<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The byelection is seen as a measure of the political landscape under Burnham, almost three months into his premiership.<\/p>\n

It is a significant first electoral test for Burnham, who succeeded Starmer in July<\/a>, as part of a wider battle for younger leftwing voters who became disillusioned with the party under Starmer\u2019s leadership over issues such as housing, the climate crisis and the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Polanski has sought to run an energetic campaign involving thousands of activists, leaving the Green party<\/a> conference early after his speech in an attempt to prove he and the Greens are a serious rival to Labour, despite the latest polling.<\/p>\n

Zack Polanski, seen campaigning in London last month, said he did not believe a defeat in the byelection would undermine his leadership of the Green party. Photograph: Andy Hall\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The Greens are hoping to reproduce their byelection victory in Gorton and Denton in February<\/a> where they overturned a Labour majority.<\/p>\n

However, the political landscape has shifted since then. Shortly after their byelection win in Greater Manchester, YouGov polling put the Greens on 21%, a few points ahead of Labour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the latest YouGov survey put the Greens 16 points behind Burnham\u2019s Labour, which was on 27%. The poll came as Burnham proposed a more ambitious pitch to progressives<\/a> at his first Labour conference as prime minister.<\/p>\n

Holborn and St Pancras has a large number of students, younger voters and renters, with almost half of residents aged between 18 and 34, while about 45% were born overseas.<\/p>\n

Polanski has argued that electing him would increase pressure on Labour to deliver more radical policies, including stronger rent controls, greater action on the climate crisis and public ownership of Thames Water.<\/p>\n

But the leader of the Greens has faced questions about his own authority and was accused of being unable to articulate his thoughts on motions that became policies at his party\u2019s conference.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Guardian last Friday<\/a>, Polanski described the contest as \u201cprobably 50\/50\u201d and that it was \u201creally on a knife-edge\u201d while also insisting his leadership did not depend on victory.<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali is hoping to become Keir Starmer\u2019s successor as the MP for Holborn and St Pancras. Photograph: Antonio Olmos\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Asked whether losing the byelection would undermine his position, Polanski said: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t depend on it whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior Green figures privately fear a defeat could severely damage his reputation amid concerns the party\u2019s increase in members has not translated into an advantage in campaigning.<\/p>\n

Labour has fielded Sagal Abdi-Wali<\/a>, the 42-year-old leader of Camden council who arrived in Britain as a child refugee after her family fled civil war in Somalia.<\/p>\n

She has emphasised her longstanding connections to the area, presenting herself as locally rooted, and with experience of community work, homelessness and housing policy.<\/p>\n

The closing days of the byelection campaign were overshadowed by a row within the Green party after members voted at their conference to adopt a policy equating Zionism with racism<\/a>, which passed by 1,022 votes to 813 despite opposition from four of the party\u2019s five MPs.<\/p>\n

Polanski, who is Jewish, left the conference early to campaign in north London<\/a> and did not participate in the vote.<\/p>\n

As polls closed on Thursday, Burnham said the Green party\u2019s Zionism motion was \u201ccompletely wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking to journalists on a trip to Berlin, the prime minister said it showed \u201cterrible judgment on behalf of the Green party\u201d and \u201cshouldn\u2019t be supported in any way, shape or form\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Labour leader called on Polanski \u201cto say that it will be reversed and it won\u2019t be Green party policy\u201d, adding: \u201cIn my view, all political parties in the UK should do everything they can to support the two-state solution between Israel and Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The byelection result may provide some insight into whether Burnham\u2019s recovery in national support is translating into Labour\u2019s inner-city strongholds, and into whether the Greens can continue to attract younger and progressive voters.<\/p>\n

It will also offer a test of Polanski\u2019s argument that the Greens can put pressure on the government from the left, even as Labour seeks to reclaim voters it lost under Starmer.<\/p>\n

Polls closed at 10pm on Thursday and the result is likely to be announced between 2:30am and 4am on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Polls have closed in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, a contest seen as a test of whether…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-796410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}