Labour Wins Holborn Special Election as Green Support Declines

Labour has retained its parliamentary seat in Holborn and St Pancras after candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali defeated Green Party leader Zack Polanski, securing 45% of the vote in a special election marked by low turnout. The result offers Labour an opportunity to rebuild support among progressive voters who became disillusioned during Keir Starmer's leadership, according to Deputy Leader Lucy Powell.

Polanski finished second with 33%, according to the election results. Turnout reached 38.7%, despite an intensive Green Party campaign in the diverse north London constituency, which had been represented by Starmer before he resigned his parliamentary seat following his removal as prime minister.

Labour strategists welcomed the result as the party faced growing competition from the Greens in urban areas. Powell said the outcome demonstrated that Labour could reconnect with voters who had abandoned the party in recent years.

Powell said the result "sends a clear message to those voters who lost faith in Labour in recent years".

She said Labour recognized the need to communicate its political priorities more clearly and place its values at the center of its platform.

"We hear you, we've listened and we know we needed to be clearer about what we stand for and what type of country we want to see, proudly putting our values centre stage. We're delighted so many of you are backing us once again," Powell said.

The result comes as the Greens face controversy over a motion adopted at their conference that equated Zionism with racism and called for Israel to be replaced by a single Palestinian state. Polanski has faced criticism for missing the debate while campaigning in the special election.

Addressing supporters after his defeat, Polanski maintained that the Greens remained a significant challenger to Labour. He also said voters had expressed interest in giving Andy Burnham an opportunity to lead the party.

Polanski said many voters wanted to "give Andy Burnham a chance".

The result was the Greens' second-best performance in a special election, according to the source report. Their strongest result came in February, when they captured Gorton and Denton, a traditionally safe Labour seat in Greater Manchester, dealing a blow to Starmer's position.

National polling has since shifted. The Greens reached 21% earlier in the year, overtaking Labour, but now stand at approximately 11%, more than 15 percentage points behind Burnham's party, according to the report.

Abdi-Wali, a former child refugee who arrived in the UK from Somalia in the 1990s, used her victory speech to challenge attempts to question her belonging in Britain. Her remarks appeared to respond to Reform UK's Zia Yusuf, who suggested she was not British shortly after the election was called.

Abdi-Wali criticized "those who seek to divide us".

She described the significance of her election for people from backgrounds similar to her own, emphasizing representation in public life.

"I hope this moment says something about who gets to belong," Abdi-Wali said.

She continued by connecting her victory to the constituency's identity and the wider country.

"For people who look like me, I hope they see themselves reflected in this place and know that their path too belongs here. This is Camden, and this is Britain," Abdi-Wali said.

Meanwhile, the dispute over the Greens' motion has intensified scrutiny of Polanski's leadership. Vivien Lichtenstein, chair of Jewish Greens, said he had made a serious error by avoiding the vote and questioned his suitability to remain leader.

Lichtenstein described Polanski's decision as a "big mistake".

Asked whether he should continue leading the party, she called for him to step aside.

"No, I think he should resign," Lichtenstein said.

Other Jewish Greens members disputed the suggestion that Lichtenstein represented the group's majority view. The source report said a motion of no confidence in her had been tabled.

Caroline Lucas, the Greens' former leader and its first member of Parliament, also criticized Polanski's absence from the conference debate. Speaking before the election result was announced, she argued that he should have participated in the vote.

Lucas said Polanski "should have been there and he should have voted".

She also criticized the motion's substance, arguing that its treatment of Zionism was divisive and failed to recognize the term's different meanings.

"I would have hoped that he would have really been a very strong critic of this motion, because the motion was flawed from top to bottom in my view. It's dangerous, it's divisive, it tries to have a singular definition of Zionism when we know that there are many," Lucas said.

Lucas stopped short of explicitly demanding Polanski's resignation, saying the party should wait to see how events developed.

"I think let's just see what happens in the … coming days and weeks," Lucas said.

The Green Party has no formal mechanism for removing its leader before an election by party members. Polanski, who became leader in September 2025, is due to face members again in a leadership election in less than a year.