Labour wins Keir Starmer’s former seat as defeating Green party in London byelection

UK’s Labour party has won the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, defeating Green party leader Zack Polanski in a closely watched contest for former prime minister Keir Starmer’s parliamentary seat.

According to The Guardian, Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali secured 12,292 votes, compared with Polanski’s 8,928.

Voter turnout was just 38.7 percent, the lowest recorded in an English byelection during the current parliament and 15.4 percentage points below the 2024 general election.

The result is a boost for UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, marking his first major electoral test since replacing Starmer.

The Greens conceded defeat before the official announcement, saying “taking the fight to Labour in one of its safest seats shows just how far the Greens have come.”

Abdi-Wali, the leader of Camden council, arrived in Britain as a child refugee from Somalia during the 1990s.

The contest followed Starmer’s resignation as an MP in September and was widely seen as a battle between Labour and the Greens for left-wing voters.

Polanski’s defeat comes after a difficult week for the Greens, following the party’s controversial decision to adopt a motion describing Zionism as a form of racism.