Summary

  • Labour has won the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, with Green leader Zack Polanski coming second

  • The Green Party conceded defeat shortly before the result was announced, as a spokesperson said "taking the fight to Labour in one of its safest seats shows just how far the Greens have come"

  • The turnout in Thursday's vote is confirmed as 38.76%, which is lower than the 2024 General Election

  • The north London seat became vacant after former Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced he was standing down from the House of Commons last month

  1. Labour hold Holborn and St Pancras seat in by-election winpublished at 03:03 BST
    Breaking

    The Labour Party has won the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, with Sagal Abdi-Wali receiving 12,292 votes.

  2. Result of by-election to be announcedpublished at 03:02 BST
    Breaking

    Candidates are gathered for the result of the Holborn and St Pancras by-election.

    We will be bringing you updates here and you can also watch along live on the stream at the top of this page.

  3. Zack Polanski tells journalists at the count he will continue as Green leaderpublished at 03:01 BST

    Susana Mendonça
    BBC London

    Zack Polanski just told waiting journalists that he is going to continue as leader of the Green Party.

    Zack Polanski at the Holborn and St Pancras count
  4. People gather as result expectedpublished at 03:01 BST

    Tara Mewawalla
    Reporting from the Holborn and St Pancras by-election

    Multiple people in a crowd father in Camden Council offices.

    All eyes are on the podium now as council staff, candidates, party members and journalists wait expectantly for the acting returning officer Jon Rowney to announce the results.

    Labour's candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali has also now entered the building and the results could come any moment now.

  5. Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali arrives at countpublished at 02:58 BST
    Breaking

    Sagal Abdi-Wali holds two colleagues as she stands outside beside a car

    Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali has been seen arriving at Camden Council offices ahead of tonight's by-election result.

    Her arrival comes shortly after the Green Party conceded the contest.

  6. Greens conceding 'not surprising', says Prof John Curticepublished at 02:56 BST

    John Curtice speaks in the BBC News studio while wearing a dark suit and purple tie.

    Responding to news of the Green Party conceding in tonight's by-election, Professor John Curtice says the party could still acquire a "very considerable vote".

    The politics professor at the University of Strathclyde tells BBC News that while it is "not surprising" the party has conceded, he is intrigued to know whether the Greens are indeed a "close second" as they said they were in their statement.

    He adds: "They are still, at least in this kind of constituency, going to represent far more of threat to Labour than historically they have ever managed to achieve before."

  7. Polanski putting on green rosette after arriving at countpublished at 02:51 BST

    Tara Mewawalla
    Reporting from the Holborn and St Pancras by-election

    Members of the media huddle in a council office, holding various cameras

    This was the scrum of journalists and camera-people awaiting Zack Polanski as he arrived at the count.

    He's now putting on his green rosette and laughing while talking to members of his party.

  8. Counting appears to have finished ahead of a resultpublished at 02:39 BST

    Jack Fenwick
    Political correspondent at the Holborn and St Pancras by-election

    All the talk earlier was that we could expect a declaration at around 04:00 BST. But that seems to have changed.

    Most of the counting around us appears to have finished.

    A Labour source tells me it could come within the next half hour. There’s still nothing official, but it doesn’t look as if we’re far away now

  9. Greens concede Holborn and St Pancras by-electionpublished at 02:34 BST
    Breaking

    Chris Mason
    Political editor

    The Green Party has conceded in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election.

    A party spokesman says: "It is clear now we will come a close second in this by-election.

    "Taking the fight to Labour in one of its safest seats shows just how far the Greens have come. Voters want us to keep Labour’s feet to the fire on affordable housing, public ownership of water and the climate crisis.

    "Greens will be there every single day, holding Labour to account and demanding the change people voted for."

  10. Candidates reflect on by-election ahead of resultpublished at 02:31 BST

    Tara Mewawalla
    Reporting from the Holborn and St Pancras by-election

    I’ve been speaking to some of the candidates who have been here for most of the evening.

    Briony Kapoor for the Rejoin EU Party predicts Labour will win, and Greens will come in second tonight.

    She says she is pleased with the prime minister’s recent comments that it is “possible” a future Labour election manifesto could promise a new in-out referendum on the European Union.

    Briony Kapoor sits in a floral jacket in the Camden Council offices.
    Image caption,

    Briony Kapoor believes Labour will win the seat, with the Greens coming in second

    Restore’s candidate Tyler Johnson says his party is “the new blue” and is pushing Reform and the Conservative Party towards the right.

    He is “optimistic” tonight and says he will be satisfied if his vote share comes close to Reform UK or the Conservative Party.

    I also spoke to the leader of the Climate Party earlier, who tells me the party’s decision to run in this by-election is about the direction in which Zack Polanski has taken the Green Party.

    Ed Gemmell claims the Green Party are “no longer our cousins” on environmental issues and says his candidate Clare Fischeris here to put a “stake in the ground about climate”.

    Liberal Democrats candidate Patrick Stillman
    Image caption,

    Liberal Democrats candidate Patrick Stillman

    Liberal Democrats candidate Patrick Stillman doesn’t expect to win tonight but says he is “not measuring success by vote share”.

    He says speaking to constituents on the campaign trail told him that British voters “don’t like being told they’ve got two options” and that many he spoke to were “very dissatisfied” with Labour but did not want to vote for the Green Party.

    His says his goal with this by-election was to build the party’s base in this constituency “for the future” and he insists that the Liberal Democrats are still relevant despite the growth of the Green Party and Reform UK.

  11. Polanski arrives at Holborn and St Pancras countpublished at 02:28 BST
    Breaking

    Zack Polanski seen with colleagues around him as he walks into an office building

    Green candidate Zack Polanski has been pictured arriving at the Camden Council offices ahead of tonight's by-election results.

  12. Watch: Polanski asked about Green's Zionism motionpublished at 02:20 BST

    Media caption,

    Watch: Zack Polanski refuses to answer questions on the Green's Zionism conference motion

    Green Party leader Zack Polanski - the party's by-election candidate - declined to answer questions about his party's adoption of a motion declaring Zionism to be racism, when asked by the BBC earlier today.

    Polanski was canvassing in the constituency when asked by journalists for this reaction to the policy and why he did not take part in the vote.

    He did not vote on the motion after leaving the party's conference early to campaign in the north London constituency.

    The motion passed by members of the Green Party at its conference last weekend defined Zionism as an ideology supporting "an ethnonationalist Jewish state" and backed a "single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine", which includes modern-day Israel.

    Following the motion Polanksi said he will not accept anyone being excluded from the Green Party "because of the religious or communal body they are part of".

    Israel's foreign ministry described the motion as a "clear antisemitic text" and said it has banned the Green Party leader from entering the country.

  13. Count continues as result still yet to be declaredpublished at 02:07 BST

    Staff members can be seen sifting through ballot papers at the Camden Council offices as the count continues in to the early hours.

    A pair of counters sift through ballots at the Camden Council office.Image source, Reuters
    A man holds several ballot papers in his hands at the Camden Council office.Image source, Reuters
    A counter unfolding a ballot at the Camden Council office.Image source, Reuters
  14. Monster Raving Loonies arrive as Labour remain confidentpublished at 02:01 BST

    Susana Mendonca
    BBC London

    Members of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party stand in Camden council offices in a central foyer.

    A noisy moment in the counting hall just before as the Monster Raving Loonies arrived.

    I just heard their candidate Barmy Brunch (who is wearing a baked beans mask) saying: “Count Binface is a has-bean.”

    Meanwhile Labour sources I’ve been chatting to seem quietly confident.

    One who was out canvassing earlier told me voters on the doorstep have liked their message on local issues like the cost of living.

  15. Greens believe they are ahead in 'some wards', source sayspublished at 01:40 BST

    Jack Fenwick
    Political correspondent

    We’ve just had another big dollop of expectation management from the Greens.

    A party source says they believe they’ve tripled their vote share compared to the general election in 2024.

    But back then the Greens only got 10% and Labour got close to 50%, so a tripling of the vote share would still leave them way behind where they’d likely have to be to pick up this seat.

    This feels like the closest we’ve had yet to the Greens conceding.

    The source stresses this has been a safe Labour seat for over four decades and says they believe they are ahead in “some wards”.

  16. BBC Verify

    How control of London’s councils changed in Maypublished at 01:25 BST

    By Daniel Wainwright

    Labour previously had a majority on 21 of 32 London borough councils, but that fell to just nine following May’s local elections.

    Camden, the council which contains Holborn and St Pancras, stayed Labour but the party lost 17 seats, leaving them with 30 out of 55 councillors.

    The Greens won for the first time both the mayoral and council races in Hackney and Lewisham and took control in Waltham Forest.

    The Conservatives retained all of the London councils they already controlled and also gained Westminster from Labour.

    Reform UK took control of Havering, the Liberal Democrats kept control of three London councils and Tower Hamlets came under the control of local party Aspire.

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  17. Turnout for by-election confirmed at just under 39%published at 01:09 BST

    Tara Mewawalla
    Reporting from the Holborn and St Pancras by-election

    Staff at Camden Council count ballots for the Holborn and St Pancras by-election

    An announcement has just declared that all ballot papers have now been verified here at Camden Council's main office.

    The turnout for this by-election is 38.76% which equates to 27,309 ballot papers verified.

    That's lower than the turnout for this constituency at the 2024 General Election which was 54.1%.

    The Makerfield by-election - won by Andy Burnham - saw 58.7% turnout and the Gorton and Denton by-election - when the Green Party's Hannah Spencer came out on top - saw 47.5%.

    Adjudication has also started for some counting teams - when counters go over and check the ballot papers they are not sure about.

  18. Who is Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali?published at 01:00 BST

    Sagal Abdi-Wali, Labour candidate for the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, at the launch of her local election campaign in LondonImage source, PA Media

    Camden Council leader Sagal Abdi-Wali is standing as Labour's candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election.

    Abdi-Wali, 42, who came to the UK from Somalia as a child refugee with her family in the 1990s, grew up in Camden, where she became a councillor in 2022.

    She was elected as leader of the local authority in May, and has been chosen by Labour members to contest the north London seat vacated by Keir Starmer.

    The candidate said she was "delighted that local members have put their trust in me to be Labour's candidate in the area I've grown up in".

    She has also worked as a volunteer and trustee for local charities in the borough, as well as the governor of two schools, according to Labour.

  19. Who is Green candidate Zack Polanski?published at 00:55 BST 9 October

    Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, Zack Polanski, delivers his keynote speech at the Green Party annual conference in Brighton, Britain, 02 October 2026.Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

    Green Party leader Zack Polanski was selected as the party's candidate in the by-election by members of the Camden Green Party.

    He won the selection ahead of local councillor Hamza Chowdhury.

    Polanski, 43, who grew up in Salford, said he made Camden "my home" when he first moved to London 20 years ago, adding he has "lived and worked across Holborn and St Pancras for many of the years since".

    The candidate, who is a London Assembly member, has had an unconventional path to politics, previously working as an actor, hypnotherapist and mental health counsellor.

    He first joined the Liberal Democrats in 2015, a party he now criticises as being insufficiently left-wing, before joining the Green Party in 2017.

    He previously worked as the Greens local party chairman before getting elected to City Hall in 2021 and becoming the party's deputy leader in 2022. He was elected as party leader in September last year.

  20. Analysis

    This by-election is a test for Burnham against the Greenspublished at 00:49 BST 9 October

    Jack Fenwick
    Political correspondent, reporting from the Holborn and St Pancras by-election

    When Andy Burnham became prime minister, he did so by returning to Westminster in a by-election of his own.

    At the time, that was seen as a fight against Reform to Labour's right as a test of whether he could beat the party.

    This by-election is a test of whether the Labour Party under Andy Burnham's leadership can beat the Green Party on its left.

    We know that when Labour had been down in the polls a few months ago, when Keir Starmer was the prime minster, the Greens had been taking votes off them on the left.

    When Zack Polanski become the Green Party leader just over a year ago, they had a real bounce in the polls.

    Well, that poll rating has dipped in recent months - and that's a trend that has continued since Andy Burnham has come into power.

    Infographic comparing Holborn and St Pancras with UK or England and Wales averages. Population 111,850 in a 9.3 sq km constituency. UK-born residents: 55% versus 84% nationally. Unemployment benefit claimants: 5.1% versus 3.9%. Average weekly full-time pay: £886 versus £767. Residents aged over 65: 10.6% versus 18.9%. Average house price: £680,000 versus £295,000.