Green leader Zack Polanski silent before by-election amid Zionism row

Voters in Holborn and St Pancras are due to go to the polls in a by-election triggered by Keir Starmer's resignation as an MP. The former prime minister stood down this week, ending his time representing a seat Labour has held since 1983. Starmer won nearly half the vote in 2024, but his majority fell from around 27,000 in 2019 to about 11,000, in part because of a strong independent challenge and a growing Green vote.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski has confirmed he wants to stand for the Greens. He is a London Assembly member and has said he has lived and worked around the area for 20 years, rejecting claims that he is a parachute candidate. Local Green members had to approve his selection. Labour has selected Camden Council leader Sagal Abdiwali, a former child refugee. There are 15 candidates in all, including Liberal Democrat Patrick Thomas Stillman, Conservative Ewan Cameron and Reform UK's Peter Newman. Polling has been set for 8 October, and the latest coverage describes the vote as taking place tomorrow.

The contest is being treated as an early electoral test for new Prime Minister Andy Burnham. Labour officials believe the Greens' popularity has fallen since Burnham replaced Starmer, and some polling suggests the Greens' favourable ratings have slipped under Polanski. But local election results in May showed the Greens making gains in London, including wards inside Holborn and St Pancras. Analysis of those results put the Labour-Green vote gap in the constituency at less than 10 per cent, making the seat far more competitive than its history suggests.

Housing and the cost of living have dominated the doorstep. High rents and home ownership pressures came up repeatedly with voters. Polanski has also pointed to the climate crisis and opposition to North Sea oil and gas drilling, arguing that a Green win could stop Andy Burnham from proceeding with drilling. Gaza has featured too. Abdiwali has made housing her number one issue and said she would look at anything that helps tackle the crisis, including a possible mansion tax. Voters interviewed were divided, with some lifelong Labour supporters saying they were considering the Greens, and others saying the seat would remain Labour.

The stakes are high for both leaders. For Labour, losing a seat held by a former prime minister so soon after Burnham took office would be a symbolic blow. For Polanski, defeat would damage his claim that the Greens can replace Labour as the main party of the left. The Greens have pointed to local election gains and their ability to push Labour on issues such as the child benefit cap. Labour hopes Abdiwali's local profile as Camden Council leader will hold the seat.

In the final days, the campaign has been overshadowed by a Green Party conference vote to brand Zionism as racist. Polanski has not been seen or quoted in the days since the vote, and critics have called him the vanishing leader. His last election address in the constituency says that as a Jewish man whose family had to move around for generations, it was the warm spirit of Camden that made him fall in love with the community. A Green representative said Polanski personally does not feel comfortable with the motion and has argued for amendments. Labour MPs have also faced unease over Burnham's comments on a legal process, according to one exchange.