When Sir Keir Starmer announced that he was standing down as an MP on Tuesday, jubilation erupted among Green activists. Zack Polanski’s party has already proved it can take on Labour’s campaign machine in ethnically diverse parts of Manchester; Starmer’s resignation now presents the perfect opportunity to do the same in London.
At the time of the 2021 census, the constituency of Holborn and St Pancras was 21 per cent Muslim and 45 per cent non-white. At the 2024 general election, Starmer received almost 50 per cent of the vote, while the Green party and the independent pro-Gaza candidate Andrew Feinstein secured a combined 29 per cent. Andy Burnham has taken some of the wind out of the Greens’ sails but Holborn and St Pancras presents a comeback opportunity for the far left, who think Burnham is just a less robotic-sounding Zionist capitalist shill than his predecessor.
The central-London constituency is fertile ground for the Greens to take the fight to Labour on their favourite subject: Gaza. In the ‘Greens for Palestine’ WhatsApp group, excitement about the impending contest was accompanied by an awareness of the consequences of failure. Green members agreed that, while deputy leader Mothin Ali would be a strong candidate in any by-election, he would be too great a loss to the north and better placed to fight a seat near his home city of Leeds. What was most striking was the apparent lack of enthusiasm for Polanski.
Polanski will feel pressure to stand but the safer option would be to wait and see whether Diane Abbott retires
Former Green council candidate Zak Khan, who is adored by members for his role aboard the Gaza ‘Global Sumud Flotilla’, remarked: ‘The seat has a 50 per cent Bame population, it should be represented by someone who understands those communities’ concerns.’ Mental-health and social-care worker Steph responded: ‘It’d be nice to have a global majority rep for once and also a true anti-Zionist.’ In Green parlance, ‘global majority’ refers to people who are black, Asian, brown, dual-heritage, indigenous or from the ‘global south’.
Pre-empting the horror of a white man standing for the seat, another member, Ash, responded: ‘Terrible the way selections in our party are often run. It’s often a passive process, rather than pro-active. We know women and people of colour generally need encouragement and support to put themselves forward. Also, in terms of values, I’d like to see us as the left organise and support candidates with the right values like being anti-Zionist, which doesn’t seem to be happening.’
Jacqueline, an academic, trade unionist and trans activist, chimed in: ‘Lots of room for unconscious bias and structural injustice to come into play.’ Mo from Birmingham suggested that his comrades should be ‘mindful’ when discussing their preference for an outsider over Polanski, lest their conversations end up in an article by Noa Hoffman in The Spectator.
Green members wield huge power through the party’s governance rules and democratic structures, as well as exercising influence over its leadership. Greens for Palestine maintains a particularly close relationship with Ali, who quietly left the chat after conversations berating Polanski and the party leadership were repeatedly exposed.
Earlier this year, Polanski professed that he would ‘almost certainly be running’ if Starmer stood down. On Tuesday evening, he was out canvassing in the constituency. Polanski said: ‘We will announce our candidate in due course and they will set out an exciting agenda for the deep change our country needs. I am proud of what I have achieved in the first year of my leadership of the Green party but it is just the start.’
Polanski will undoubtedly feel pressure to stand but the stakes are high, and the safer option would be to wait and see whether Diane Abbott retires before making a run for her Hackney seat. As Ash remarked in the Greens for Palestine chat, the party’s shocking third-place result in the Manchester mayoral election ‘really has given the impression we’ve run out of steam given how bad [sic] we did [and] if we don’t do reasonably well in this by-election, that will seal that impression’.
One potential headache for the Greens appears to have been avoided: splitting the vote with the pro-Gaza independent Feinstein, who came second to Starmer in 2024. He announced on X: ‘We must ensure that all progressive forces in Holborn and St Pancras unite.’ Among the former candidate’s views is the claim that Starmer’s government was ‘directed by Israel’. Excitement over his potential candidacy was palpable in Green chats. ‘He’s an incredible person,’ one member gushed.
Whether Feinstein formally joins the Greens, or whether Polanski or someone else stands, the campaign looks set to promote an increasingly extreme agenda on Gaza, defence, the economy and immigration.
In recent months, Labour has shown that where the Greens lead, it will often follow – even if only halfway up the garden path. The by-election will place huge pressure on Burnham to move further to the left. Labour HQ, however, is determined to attack the Greens as hard as possible. This is relatively easy, given that the party’s membership provides almost endless material for ridicule. Ahead of its conference in October, member-submitted motions range from giving ‘people who menstruate’ an additional 36 days of paid annual leave to disbanding the Prevent programme and forging closer ties with the IRGC.
The question for Labour is how far Burnham and his eventual candidate should go to chase those votes. Some senior MPs believe it should refrain from launching negative attacks on its rival party, focusing instead on Burnham’s positive agenda. Others believe that, even in an area as progressive as Holborn and St Pancras, highlighting Polanski’s extreme positions will deter potential Green voters and push them towards Labour.
The party of government gave prospective candidates until Friday to put their names forward, with the winner to be selected by 9 September. So far, David Miliband has ruled himself out, while the party is taking an interest in several local community bigwigs. In the days ahead, those willing to make a go of it will begin the process of self-promotion. Starmer, true to form, has left his party in another fine mess.
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