Holborn and St Pancras by-election 2026 result: Labour holds seat

The Holborn and St Pancras by-election 2026 result: Labour holds seat, with Camden Council leader Sagal Abdi-Wali winning by 3,364 votes, according to the Guardian. The Green leader’s defeat has brought fresh questions about his position, after a week in which his party’s conference passed a motion the BBC described as saying “Zionism is racism”.

Other members of Jewish Greens say their chair’s call for Zack Polanski to resign does not reflect the group’s majority view, and that a vote of no confidence in her has been tabled, the Guardian reported on Friday 9 October. Caroline Lucas, the Greens’ former leader, has also declined to say whether Mr Polanski should stand down.

Jewish Greens divided over the call for Mr Polanski to resign

Vivien Lichtenstein, chair of Jewish Greens, said on Friday that Mr Polanski made a “big mistake” by avoiding the conference vote. Asked on Times Radio whether he should continue in his role, she said: “No, I think he should resign.” The Guardian noted that Mr Polanski is Jewish himself.

Other members of Jewish Greens then said her comments did not reflect the majority view in the group, and that a vote of no confidence in her had been tabled, according to the Guardian. The paper did not say how many members were involved, who tabled the vote or when it would take place. It is therefore not yet clear how much support either position has inside the group.

Ms Lucas, speaking to Newsnight, said she wanted Mr Polanski “to show the leadership that was frankly missing on Sunday”. Asked if he should stand down, she did not say he should go or stay, according to the Guardian. “I think let’s just see what happens in the … coming days and weeks,” she said.

Mr Polanski told the BBC after the count: “Of course I can carry on as leader of the Green party. We’re a party of 220,000 members. I’ve taken a loss tonight but our movement is so much bigger than one election or one motion.” The Guardian said there is no formal mechanism for ejecting a Green leader, but leaders are re-elected every two years, so he must go back to members in under a year.

Why the Zionism motion has put Mr Polanski’s leadership under scrutiny

The criticism centres on a Green conference vote on the previous Sunday, which approved a motion the BBC described as saying “Zionism is racism”. The Guardian said it called for Israel to be replaced by a single Palestinian state, and that four of the party’s five MPs opposed it. Mr Polanski missed the debate because he was campaigning in the by-election.

Ms Lucas said he “should have been there and he should have voted”, according to the Guardian.

Mr Polanski told Sky News: “I would have supported the motion as amended. It wasn’t amended, so no.”

How the Green Party challenge changed the Holborn St Pancras vote

Ms Abdi-Wali won 12,292 votes, 45% of the total, while Mr Polanski took 8,928, or about 33%, according to the Guardian and the Evening Standard. That is the Greens’ second-best vote share at a Westminster by-election, the BBC reported. The party’s best came in February, when Hannah Spencer took Gorton and Denton from Labour.

Labour’s share fell from 48.9% to 45%, while the Greens’ rose from 10.4% to 33%, so their share more than tripled. The 2024 comparison needs a caveat. The BBC noted that independent candidate Andrew Feinstein came second then with nearly 19%, or 7,312 votes according to the Evening Standard.

Adding Mr Feinstein’s votes to the Greens’ 4,030 gives 11,342, which is 2,414 more than Mr Polanski’s 8,928. The Guardian made the same point, saying the result suggests the Greens “have not significantly expanded their base of voters” in the seat.

Turnout was 38.6%, according to the BBC, down from 54% in 2024. The Guardian gave 38.7%, calling it the lowest for any by-election held in England during this Parliament, and said the widespread assumption that Labour would win probably kept some voters at home.

Video: BBC News report on Labour’s victory in Holborn and St Pancras by-election (BBC News / YouTube)

What the winner and the runner-up said

Ms Abdi-Wali, who came to the UK from Somalia as a child refugee in the 1990s, told BBC London that voters were “looking for hope”. She said that despite national attention she had “focused on my own campaign”. People on the streets were, she said, “really positive towards me and the fact that I was a local person”.

In her victory speech she said: “This is Camden, and this is Britain.” She also said she wanted Thames Water brought into public ownership and named housing as a priority, saying “the only way we get out of the housing crisis is to build more social, affordable homes”.

Mr Polanski said “no-one runs an election to lose” but that many voters wanted to give the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, “a chance”. Asked whether he would stay on as leader, he said: “Yes absolutely, that’s what leaders do,” according to the Guardian. Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell told the paper the result “sends a clear message to those voters who lost faith in Labour in recent years”.

What happens next for Labour and the Greens

Camden Labour must now choose a new council leader, the BBC reported, because Ms Abdi-Wali is leaving the post to sit in the Commons. For the Greens, the first thing to watch is the no-confidence vote in Ms Lichtenstein, for which the Guardian gave no date. The next formal test for Mr Polanski is the leadership election, which the Guardian said he will face in less than a year. The paper said he must try to reassure doubters before then.

Among the other parties, the Conservatives came third on 7.1%, ahead of Reform UK, the first time they have beaten Reform in an English by-election this Parliament, according to the BBC. The Liberal Democrats finished fifth, according to the Guardian. Ms Abdi-Wali’s stated priorities on housing and Thames Water now move from campaign pledges to decisions that depend largely on national government.