{"id":2374,"date":"2026-10-09T11:03:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T06:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2374"},"modified":"2026-10-09T11:03:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T06:03:45","slug":"uk-pm-burnhams-labour-fends-off-left-wing-greens-in-local-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2374","title":{"rendered":"UK PM Burnham’s Labour fends off left-wing Greens in local election"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Andy \u200bBurnham\u2019s Labour Party won an election for the parliamentary seat vacated by former leader Keir Starmer on Friday, fending \u200coff a strong challenge from the left-wing Green Party in a boost for the British prime minister.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali, the leader of the local council, won 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 \u200bGreen Party leader.<\/p>\n

Labour had been widely expected to hold the seat, as Burnham seeks to repair his party\u2019s damaged \u200bappeal among core voters in big cities after two bruising years in government under Starmer.<\/p>\n

While Labour\u2019s \u2060main rival in national polls is currently the populist Reform Party, the governing party is seeking to shore up support among \u200bleft-leaning voters who had turned to the Greens before a national vote due in mid-2029.<\/p>\n

The result will be a blow to Polanski, \u200ba 43-year-old former actor and hypnotherapist, who has promised to make his party \u201can eco-populist\u201d movement and draw support away from Labour \u2014 a strategy that had been working until Burnham came to power.<\/p>\n

Abdi-Wali paid tribute to Starmer in her victory speech and said she wanted to work with Burnham on \u200bissues such as housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a responsibility to defend what we\u2019ve built and pass it on,\u201d she said. \u201cThroughout our campaign, we \u200bchose hope, and the people of Holborn and St Pancras chose it with us. And now it\u2019s time to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>Burnham\u2019s arrival has sapped momentum from Green Party<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Starmer was replaced as prime minister<\/a> in July and stood down as a lawmaker in September<\/a> after losing the support of his Labour Party over a series of missteps, U-turns and disastrous local election results<\/a> in May.<\/p>\n

The Green Party<\/a> had made record gains in London \u2014 largely at Labour\u2019s expense \u2014 in May\u2019s local elections, capitalising on Starmer\u2019s unpopularity.<\/p>\n

But the Greens have fallen back in national polls since, after Burnham made several \u200bpolicy pitches that boosted Labour\u2019s \u200bstanding among voters to the \u2060left, including a tougher line on Israel<\/a> and a more ambitious approach to relations with the European Union<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The result caps a damaging few days for Polanski, whose leadership of the Greens has been questioned \u200bafter party members passed a Zionism is Racism motion<\/a> to widespread criticism from Jewish groups, other parties \u200band even most \u2060Green Party lawmakers.<\/p>\n

After the result, Polanski, who is Jewish, said he believed the displacement of Palestinian people was racist, although he declined to say that he supported the motion after not taking part in the vote last weekend.<\/p>\n

He said that he was disappointed not to \u2060win the \u200bseat but would stay on as Green Party leader, adding that the \u200bparty would continue to grow despite the setback.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many people told me on the doorstep that they want to give Andy Burnham a chance,\u201d Polanski told broadcasters. \u201cWell, \u200bhe\u2019s got a chance now. Let\u2019s see what he does with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andy \u200bBurnham\u2019s Labour Party won an election for the parliamentary seat vacated by former leader Keir Starmer on Friday, fending \u200coff 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 by-election in the central London constituency of Holborn and St Pancras with 12,292 votes, compared with 8,928 for Zack Polanski, the \u200bGreen Party leader. Labour had been widely expected to hold the seat, as Burnham seeks to repair his party\u2019s damaged…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}