Labour has held the London seat vacated by former leader Keir Starmer, beating the Green Party’s leader by more than 3,000 votes. The result is a welcome one for the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, and raises questions for the Greens.

Britain’s Labour Party has won the by-election for the parliamentary seat vacated by its former leader Keir Starmer, holding off a challenge from the Green Party, Al Jazeera reported on October 9.

The Result

  • Sagal Abdi-Wali (Labour): 12,292 votes
  • Zack Polanski (Green): 8,928 votes

That gave Labour a majority of 3,364 in the central London constituency of Holborn and St Pancras.

Abdi-Wali is the leader of the local council. Polanski, who finished second, is the leader of the Green Party.

Why It Matters for Burnham

The win had been expected, but it is a boost for Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

Burnham was recently installed by Labour lawmakers who feared that Starmer’s unpopularity was opening the way for the populist Reform UK party at the next national election.

Labour lost left-wing support to the Greens earlier this year. This result suggests it has won many of those voters back. Al Jazeera’s correspondent in London reported “a deep sigh of relief” in the party, with some describing a “Burnham bounce”.

The Winner

Abdi-Wali arrived in the United Kingdom as a child refugee from Somalia. She said her victory was a defeat for “those who seek to divide us”.

“We have a responsibility to defend what we’ve built and pass it on,” she said.

Labour has held the seat since it was created in 1983.

Questions for the Greens

The Greens now have five MPs, compared with one in 2023, but the result has prompted fresh questions about Polanski’s leadership.

Polanski, 43, came under criticism recently after party members passed a motion at their annual conference declaring that Zionism is racism. The motion was criticised by Jewish groups, other parties and most Green MPs. Polanski did not vote on it.

After conceding, Polanski, who is not an MP, said he would stay on as leader. He described the result as part of “Andy Burnham’s honeymoon”.

“One in three voters backed us here, and we know that many more considered it,” he said.

How the Seat Has Shifted

At the 2024 general election, Starmer won the seat with 49 percent of the vote. Andrew Feinstein, a pro-Palestine independent, came second with 19 percent.

Al Jazeera noted that the war in Gaza has changed voting habits over the past three years, and that the Greens, who have been more critical of Israel’s conduct than other parties, gained from that in 2024.

Image: Andy Burnham, now UK prime minister, in 2014 (file photo). Photo by Jon Clempner via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.