Greens’ Zack Polanski loses parliamentary election to Labour candidate

By Reuters and ToI Staff Today, 5:17 am

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Britain’s Green Party leader Zack Polanski attends a Green Party conference in Brighton, Britain, October 2, 2026. (Carlos Jasso/Reuters)

Andy Burnham’s Labour Party wins an election for the parliamentary seat vacated by former leader Keir Starmer, 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, wins the by-election 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 and candidate.

Polanski, who is Jewish, is staunchly anti-Israel, and the Greens party earlier this week passed a highly controversial motion declaring “Zionism is racism.”