Labour Holds Holborn and St Pancras as Green Leader Finishes Second

Labour has retained Holborn and St Pancras. Sagal Abdi-Wali defeated Green Party leader Zack Polanski in the by-election, with Polanski second, the BBC reported BBC. The Guardian confirmed the result in live coverage on 9 October The Guardian.

Polanski said he would stay on as Green leader.

Polanski is a London Assembly Member, a member of the capital's elected assembly, and leader of the Green Party. He was selected as the party's candidate at a local hustings, a selection meeting, on 10 September Green Party. Polling day was Thursday 8 October Green Party. He said the contest would be a referendum on ending "Rip-off Britain" Green Party.

He left Green Party conference early to campaign in the seat. The BBC reported he did not stay to vote on the substantive conference motion BBC.

During the campaign he was asked if he believed Israel had a right to exist. He said: "I believe people have a right to exist" BBC. The BBC's Nick Robinson put the same question to him later The Telegraph. In that exchange he declined five times to say Israel has the right to exist, The Telegraph reported The Telegraph.

Polanski is Jewish. Yahoo News reported Israel barred him from entering the country Yahoo News. The same report said Israel described a motion declaring Zionism to be racism as antisemitic Yahoo News.

The broader context here will be familiar to Westminster watchers. A by-election, a vote held outside a general election when a seat falls vacant, tests both a party and, when the candidate is the leader, that leader personally. It concentrates attention and resources, but also risk. For Labour, holding the seat avoids a damaging loss in London and steadies its numbers in Parliament. For the Greens, second place in a Labour-held seat will be called progress, while critics inside and outside the party will ask about leaving conference early and the exchanges over Israel.