Labour and Greens face Holborn and St Pancras by-election test

Labour and the Greens are preparing for a parliamentary by-election in Holborn and St Pancras, London, on Thursday 8 October 2026, after Keir Starmer resigned the seat. Camden Council lists Labour's Sagal Abdi-Wali and Green Party leader Zack Polanski among the candidates. The vote will show which candidate succeeds Starmer; on the eve of polling, its outcome remains unknown.

The contest has drawn attention beyond the constituency because Reuters describes it as an early test for Prime Minister Andy Burnham's Labour leadership and the Greens' challenge for left-leaning voters. That is an assessment of the political stakes, rather than a measured consequence of a vote that has yet to take place. Camden Council says polling stations will be open from 7am until 10pm on Thursday.

Who is standing in Holborn and St Pancras?

Camden Council's statement of persons nominated lists 15 candidates. Alongside Abdi-Wali and Polanski, the field includes candidates for the Conservatives, Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats. Reuters says the main contest is expected to be between Labour and the Greens, while noting that Reform UK presents a wider national challenge to Labour. Those political expectations do not narrow the choice printed on the ballot.

Abdi-Wali is the leader of Camden Council. The Guardian reported when Labour selected her in September that she had become council leader in May 2026, had first been elected as a Labour councillor in 2022 and had previously chaired the constituency Labour Party. She came to Britain from Somalia as a child in the 1990s, the paper reported. After her selection, she said the area had welcomed her family as refugees and pledged to put its communities at the heart of her campaign.

Why is Starmer's former seat being watched?

Starmer's resignation created the vacancy. The Guardian reported in September that he had represented Holborn and St Pancras since 2015. It said his majority at the 2024 general election had more than halved, from nearly 28,000 to 11,500. The Greens finished third in that election, while independent Andrew Feinstein was described by the paper as Starmer's main challenger. Those figures describe the previous contest, not voting intentions in this one.

There is a more recent local measure of Green support. The Guardian reported that the party gained seats on Camden Council in May 2026, although it did not take control. Reuters said Green gains elsewhere in London contributed to Labour's poor local election showing that month. It linked Labour's loss of support among some left-wing voters to the war in Gaza. Whether those earlier patterns carry into this parliamentary poll is an open question.

Reuters framed the by-election as a chance for Burnham to win back voters who had moved away from Labour under Starmer, and for the Greens to demonstrate their appeal under Polanski. Lyons Lowe told Reuters that governments rarely perform well in by-elections. He also said Burnham had appealed directly to voters sympathetic to the Greens, complicating a Green campaign message directed against Starmer's leadership. Those are the pollster's assessments of the campaign, not findings about the result.

What could affect the parties after polling?

Reuters reported that Labour had recovered in national opinion polls since Burnham replaced Starmer and that the Greens had suffered setbacks. Its account supplied no figures that would establish the size of either change in this constituency. A single by-election result may become part of each party's argument about its direction, but the cited reporting does not establish what effect it will have on their national standing.

The Greens have also faced criticism after party members at a conference voted to classify Zionism as a form of racism. Reuters said British Jewish groups, Israel and some Green lawmakers criticised the vote, and that Polanski, who is Jewish, did not take part in it. The report did not establish how that dispute has affected voting intentions in Holborn and St Pancras. It is one development in the campaign's political setting, not a basis for predicting the ballot.

For voters, the confirmed next step is the poll itself. Camden Council gives the date and opening hours, and its nominations notice identifies the full field. The available reporting does not establish turnout, vote shares or a winner. Until ballots are counted, claims that either party has passed or failed this political test remain interpretations of the contest rather than an election result.