Labour has won the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, defeating the Green party in a contest triggered by the resignation of former prime minister Keir Starmer in September. The keir starmer seat stays in Labour hands.

The result

Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali received 12,292 votes to Green leader Zack Polanski's 8,928. The Greens conceded defeat shortly before the result was announced.

A low-turnout contest

Turnout was 38.7%, the lowest for any byelection held in England during this parliament and 15.4 points down from 2024. The comparison with the last general election in the constituency underlines how much smaller the electorate's engagement was this time:

• •Starmer won an 11,572 majority for Labour here at the 2024 general election
• •Leftwing independent Andrew Feinstein came second in that contest
• •The Greens peeled off some Camden council seats from Labour in May's local elections

Who is Sagal Abdi-Wali

The winning candidate is the leader of Camden council and a former child refugee who came to the UK from Somalia in the 1990s.

Reaction

A Green party spokesperson argued the result still represented progress for the party despite defeat:

For Labour, the byelection win is a relief for prime minister Andy Burnham in his first big electoral test, reinforcing polling of support recovered since Starmer's departure. The party also directed fire at Reform UK's Zia Yusuf, whom it accused of "straightforward racism" after he said Abdi-Wali was being "foisted" on voters and was not British.

Elsewhere on the ballot paper, George Galloway - who entered the race midway while running in what he called "self-exile" outside the UK - received 314 votes.

The result stands as announced, with Labour holding the seat its former leader Keir Starmer resigned in September.