43 years. That is how long Labour has held Holborn and St Pancras: continuously since the constituency was created in 1983. The seat’s most recent MP was Keir Starmer, and the by-election to replace him has now drawn an unusual challenger. Zack Polanski is not a local candidate parachuted in to build experience — he is the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, contesting a seat his party has never held. Party leaders rarely fight winnable-looking by-elections personally, because a loss is theirs alone; Polanski has decided the upside in this constituency is worth that risk.
The hustings with empty seats
The sharpest detail of the campaign so far comes from [Edna Mohamed’s report for Al Jazeera](<https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/6/pro-palestine-greens-challenge-labours-grip-on-starmers-former-seat>). At a meeting organised for voters by the Camden Muslim Network ahead of the by-election, the Green and Liberal Democrat candidates sat on the panel and made their cases. The Labour and Conservative candidates did not appear. The seats reserved for them stayed empty.
The two sides disagree about why. Labour’s candidate, Sagal Abdi-Wali, a Somali-Muslim woman who leads Camden Council, told The Guardian she had a prior obligation and that the invitation arrived too late. The Camden Muslim Network disputes the second half of that account, saying she was invited earlier. One version says scheduling failure; the other says absence by choice. In a by-election where the Muslim vote is large enough for a community network to convene the candidates, the difference is not a minor one.
The field, and the fight that matters
Abdi-Wali, as leader of the council covering much of the seat, is the establishment candidate in the most literal sense. [The Independent’s candidate roundup](<https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/politics/holborn-st-pancras-by-election-candidates-policies-manifesto-b3062086.html>) describes Polanski and Abdi-Wali as the expected main contenders, despite a long ballot: [the published candidate list](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Holborn_and_St_Pancras_by-election>) runs to about a dozen names, including Workers Party leader George Galloway, a Conservative (Ewan Cameron), Reform, Rejoin EU and the Monster Raving Loony Party. Al Jazeera frames the contest around Gaza: the Greens under Polanski have campaigned as the pro-Palestine alternative to Labour, and this seat is exactly the demographic test of that pitch.
The measurable indicators still favour Labour. [The Evening Standard reports](<https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/zack-polanski-holborn-byelection-green-labour-andy-burnham-b1299100.html>) that two surveys of the race point the same way and that bookmakers make Abdi-Wali the favourite. Under first-past-the-post there is no reward for a strong second place, so a Green defeat — even a narrow one — returns nothing. If Polanski loses, the number that matters is not who won but the size of the margin in a seat Labour has held for 43 years.