LONDON: Andy Burnham’s Labour Party won an election for a parliamentary seat vacated by former leader Keir Starmer on Friday, fending off a strong challenge from the left-wing Green Party in a boost for the British prime minister.

Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali, the leader of the local council, won the seat in the central London constituency of Holborn and St Pancras with 12,292 votes, compared with 8,928 for Zack Polanski, the Green Party leader.

The victory, which had been expected, will buoy Burnham, installed as prime minister by lawmakers fearful Starmer’s unpopularity was opening the way for a challenge by the populist Reform UK party at the next national election.

After losing left-wing support to the Greens earlier this year, Labour looks to have won many voters back, a result which triggered more questions about the leadership of Polanski, who had promised to make his party “an eco-populist” movement.

The 43-year-old former actor and hypnotherapist, who had some success in drawing voters away from Labour before Burnham came to power, has come under fire after party members passed a motion declaring that Zionism is racism at their annual conference.

The move, which called for “the establishment of a single democratic Palestin­ian state in all of historic Palestine” was criticised by Jewish groups, other parties and most Green Party lawmakers. Polanski did not vote on the motion.

After conceding defeat in the fiercely contested by-election, Polanski answered his critics, saying he would stay on as leader, and described the result as part of “Andy Burnham’s honeymoon”.

Yet he did not get a full endorsement from the party’s former leader, Caroline Lucas, who struggled to contain her anger over what she said was his lack of leadership over the motion on Zionism at last week’s conference.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2026