Labour has unveiled the candidate who they will put forward in a by-election triggered by the former Prime Minister’s resignation as an MP.
Keir Starmer (Image: Getty)
A council leader who came to Britain as a child refugee has been selected as Labour’s candidate in the race to replace Keir Starmer as an MP. Sagal Abdi-Wali, the leader of Camden council, was officially selected as Labour’s pick to stand in the Holborn & St Pancras by-election.
Ms Adbi-Wali, who was born in Somalia, said: “I am delighted that local members have put their trust in me to be Labour’s candidate in the area I’ve grown up in.
“This place welcomed my family as refugees and gave us hope when we needed it most.
“I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to build a life here, serving our community as a councillor, school governor and community activist. Now I am standing to say thank you and to give back the hope you gave me.
“Throughout this campaign, I promise to put our communities at the heart of everything I do, now and for the future. Together, we can make hope win.”
When she emerged as the frontrunner for the candidacy following Sir Keir’s resignation, Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf made a comment on social media which was criticised from across the political spectrum for being “racist”.
Mr Yusuf wrote: “The front runner being foisted on the people of Holborn by Labour to replace the former Prime Minister Keir Starmer in our Parliament was born in Somalia. Do you understand what’s happening?”
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds condemned Mr Yusuf’s remarks as “pretty straightforward racism”, noting how Ms Abdi-Wali arrived in the UK as a child and has spent her career working to better the lives of those in her local community.
Ms Adbi-Wali could now face Zack Polanski in a tough contest to win the London constituency but the Green Party leader is facing a challenge from local councillor who has put himself forward for the Party’s nomination.
Mr Polanski, a London Assembly member, said on Wednesday that he was “proud” to face a rival and dismissed his rival’s comments that the constituency does not need “another MP who arrives during an election campaign” then “disappears once the votes are counted”.
“I think the local party already knows that doesn’t describe me at all. It’s a place that I know very, very well,” Mr Polanski said.
The Greens are likely to pose the greatest threat in the by-election to Labour, which has held the inner London constituency continuously since the seat was created in 1983, winning at least 40% of the vote at every election.
Only two Labour MPs have ever represented Holborn and St Pancras: former health secretary Frank Dobson, from 1983 to 2015, then Sir Keir.
At the most recent general election in 2024, Sir Keir held the seat with 48.9% of the vote, ahead of independent candidate Andrew Feinstein in second place on 18.9% and the Greens in third on 10.4%.
The Conservatives came fourth on 7.2%, Reform finished fifth on 6.1% and the Liberal Democrats were sixth on 5.8%.
The popularity of the independent and Green candidates at the 2024 contest, finishing second and third respectively, may have been partly down to former Labour voters protesting against Sir Keir’s refusal to take a stronger position on Israel’s actions in Gaza in the war with Hamas.
The Green Party also made gains in the May local elections in the London Borough of Camden, the local authority that covers the constituency