Labour Party uses "tougher stance on Israel" to hold London constituency; Greens' "Zionism is racism" motion triggers backlash

On October 9, 2026, a parliamentary by-election was held in the central London constituency of Holborn and St. Pancras. According to the international edition of The Hindu, Labour candidate and current local council leader Sagal Abdi-Wali defeated Green Party leader Zack Polanski (8,928 votes) by 12,292 votes, allowing Labour to hold the key seat after Keir Starmer's resignation as a member of parliament.

The by-election reflected two left-wing parties' divergent approaches to the Israeli-Palestinian issue. After Starmer was replaced in July and Burnham took over as prime minister, Labour rolled out a series of policy positions including "a tougher stance toward Israel" and "more active efforts to advance relations with Europe." The Hindu noted that these adjustments significantly boosted Labour's support among left-wing voters, although the report did not specify the policy details of the "tougher" stance.

Burnham's ascent was itself a corrective to Starmer's failed tenure. According to The Hindu, Starmer lost the support of his party over "a series of blunders, U-turns" and a poor showing in the May local elections, and resigned his parliamentary seat in September. Within the party, Burnham was seen as a figure who could both stabilize the situation and reopen dialogue with voters.

The Green Party, by contrast, found itself in a separate predicament. The party achieved a historic result in London's May local elections this year, mainly eating into Labour's vote; but a motion passed at a members' conference last weekend equating Zionism with racism prompted widespread criticism from Jewish organizations, other parties and even most Green parliamentarians, visibly blunting the party's momentum.

Polanski, 43, is a Jewish former actor and hypnotherapist. After his by-election loss, he told media outlets that he regarded the displacement of Palestinians as a racist act, but declined to take a position on the motion because he had not attended last week's vote. The Hindu said that this controversy has raised fresh questions about Polanski's leadership, and that his strategy of building the Greens into an "eco-populist movement" and peeling voters away from Labour has suffered a setback.

The Greens' ebb and Labour's resurgence have occurred almost simultaneously. The report noted that, since May, Burnham's package of policies has drawn left-wing voters back, while the Greens have slipped in polling because of the motion in question. Doorstep conversations in Holborn and St. Pancras suggest that voter sentiment has already shifted. "A lot of people who came knocking on my door told me they wanted to give Andy Burnham a chance," Polanski told the media. "He's got that chance now. Let's see what he does with it."

The report also pointed out that Labour's main national polling rival remains the right-wing populist Reform Party, with the next general election still about two and a half years away in mid-2029. In her victory speech, Abdi-Wali paid tribute to Starmer and stressed her wish to work with Burnham on issues including housing. She quoted: "We have a duty to defend everything we have built and to pass it on. Throughout this campaign, we chose hope, and the voters of Holborn and St. Pancras chose it with us. Now, it is time to deliver on that promise."