Britainupdated 31m ago2 min read
Labour Defeats Green Leader Zack Polanski in Holborn and St Pancras By-Election
Labour retained Holborn and St Pancras, defeating Green leader Zack Polanski 12,292 to 8,928. A 13-point swing from Labour to Greens accompanied the defeat.
Labour wins Holborn seat
Britain’s governing Labour Party was declared winner of a special election in London on Friday, defeating the Green Party’s leader Zack Polanski in Holborn and St Pancras. Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali won the contest with 12,292 votes, 45% of the total, after the seat had been left vacant by the resignation of former Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Green leader Zack Polanski received 8,928 votes, just under 33%, and Polanski told Sky News on Friday that it is “difficult being leader of any party, particularly the Green Party.” Abdi-Wali said after the result was announced that she was honored to represent an area that had given her opportunities, and she told reporters, “I hope this moment also says something about who gets to belong.”
Polanski vows to stay
Zack Polanski vowed to stay on as Green Party leader after his by-election defeat, as pressure mounted from within his own party to resign. Vivien Lichtenstein, the leader of the Jewish Greens, said on Friday he should resign and called it a “big mistake” for him to have dodged a debate about a party conference motion that declared Zionism a form of racism.
Polanski told BBC Breakfast he would “absolutely” stay on as leader and said, “of course” he had not questioned that. Jonathan Bartley, the Green co-leader from 2016 to 2021, called on Polanski to “put his hands up” and “say sorry,” while telling BBC Radio 4’s World at One that the policy vote was “a failure of leadership from Zack.”
Zionism row and next test
The by-election unfolded after Green members backed a motion declaring Zionism is racism, and the motion defined Zionism as an ideology supporting “an ethnonationalist Jewish state” while backing a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine.”
“Well, he's got a chance now. Let's see what he does with it.”
Caroline Lucas said on BBC Newsnight that she wanted Polanski to show the leadership that was “frankly missing on Sunday,” and she told viewers, “I think let’s just see what happens in the coming days and weeks.”
Labour’s Bridget Phillipson said the election result showed the party’s “message of hope is really cutting through,” and she said the Greens’ conference motion held “British Jews to a standard that we do not apply to others.”
Polanski said he would not step down, and he told broadcasters that “So many people told me on the doorstep that they want to give Andy Burnham a chance,” adding, “Well, he’s got a chance now. Let’s see what he does with it.”