Labour has held Holborn and St Pancras, the seat vacated by Sir Keir Starmer, with council leader Sagal Abdi-Wali winning comfortably. But the real story of the night was the Green Party's surge into second place, and the defiant response of its leader, Zack Polanski, who told Sky News he has no intention of stepping down despite losing his own bid for the seat.
A strong second place, not a victory
Abdi-Wali took 12,292 votes, 45.17% of the total, a result that gives Labour a comfortable hold but represents a drop of nearly four points compared with the previous contest. Polanski's Green Party finished second with 8,928 votes, a vote share increase of over 22 percentage points. That swing is the headline figure from the count: a minor party more than doubling its standing in a single London constituency within a national political cycle marked by volatility across the smaller parties.
The Conservatives and Reform UK both polled under 8%, continuing a pattern seen in recent by-elections where traditional opposition parties struggle to make inroads in inner-London seats while insurgent or single-issue candidates pick up protest votes. Reform's Peter Newman took 5.92%, down slightly on the party's previous showing here, despite a campaign that drew national attention for comments made by the party's home affairs spokesperson about Abdi-Wali's background.
Polanski defends his decision to stand
Asked directly whether he regretted contesting a seat he did not win, Polanski was unambiguous: "I don't think it was a mistake at all." He framed the campaign as a platform to press Green priorities, including rent controls, climate policy and the nationalisation of Thames Water, arguing that the exposure justified the effort regardless of the outcome. Pressed again on whether he would resign the leadership, he replied simply that staying on "is what leaders do."
That response sits within a familiar pattern in British party politics: leaders who contest and lose individual seats frequently argue that a strong vote share, rather than victory itself, is the meaningful metric. The Greens' jump in support gives Polanski a tangible figure to point to, even as critics may question the judgment of a party leader standing in a seat he was always unlikely to win outright.
The conference motion adds complexity
Polanski's post-election comments were not confined to the result. He was also pressed on a motion passed at the Green Party's conference describing Zionism as racism, a decision that has drawn criticism from Jewish community groups and raised questions about how the party manages internal debate on the Israel-Palestine conflict. He argued that criticism of the Israeli state should not be conflated with antisemitism, and said the party could defend both Jewish safety and Palestinian rights simultaneously. The motion is likely to remain a point of scrutiny for the Greens as they try to consolidate the gains made in Holborn and St Pancras into a broader electoral strategy.
What the result signals for Labour
For Labour, the win keeps a safe seat in the column but the reduced margin and a resurgent Green challenge will be read as a warning sign in similarly diverse, younger, urban constituencies. Abdi-Wali, Camden's first black female council leader and a former child refugee from Somalia, used her victory speech to address the racialised attacks levelled against her during the campaign, telling supporters that "diversity is a strength" and that her win represented bringing people together "around a positive vision," rather than division. She named homelessness and the state of Thames Water as her immediate priorities in Westminster.