UK Labor Party Holds Keir Starmer’s old Seat — But Questions Remain about its new Somalian MP
UK Labor Party Holds Keir Starmer’s old Seat — But Questions Remain about its new Somalian MP
October 9, 2026
The Labor Party has kept the Holborn and St Pancras seat in north London, but the by-election, meant to be a celebration for Prime Minister Andy Burnham, ended up serving as a warning. Sagal Abdi-Wali, leader of Camden Council, won with 12,292 votes, or 45 percent, compared with Zack Polanski, the Green leader, who received 8,928 — a majority of 3,364. This is a sharp drop from Keir Starmer’s 11,57 majority in 2024, with a 13 percent swing to the Greens.
The rest of the field barely registered. The Conservatives took seven per cent, Reform six, the Liberal Democrats three and a half — failing to keep their deposit — and Restore Britain two and a half. The Tories edged Reform, though Restore appears to have split the right-wing vote. Turnout was 39 percent, the lowest by-election of this parliament, and well below the 54 percent here in 2024.
Starmer resigned the seat in September, weeks after being ousted as prime minister — a reversal of his earlier pledge to stay until 2029. It was Andy Burnham’s first major electoral test, and a relief for him.
The Green surge was real, but not enough. Polanski’s vote share rose 22 points in 2024, from about 10 percent to 33. He still lost. After the declaration, he congratulated Abdi-Wali and wrote: “I’m proud of the campaign we fought. To go from 10% to 33% of the vote share during the PM’s ‘bounce’ is good — but our ambitions are far higher.” He told Sky it had not been a mistake to stand: “I think it’s been an opportunity to present the Green Party values, to talk about rent controls, tackling the climate crisis, nationalizing Thames Water.” He told reporters he would “of course” carry on as leader.
Just days before voting took place, members of the Green Party had passed a resolution stating that Zionism was a form of racism, the vote being 1,022 to 813. Four of the five Green MPs voted against the resolution. Caroline Lucas called it dangerous and divisive and said Polanski had failed to show leadership. When questioned on Newsnight about whether he should step down, she replied: “I think we shall just have to wait and see what happens in the coming days and weeks.” Israel has banned him from entering the country. When asked on the BBC’s Newsnight whether he should stand down, she said: “I think we shall just have to wait and see what happens in the coming days and weeks.” Israel has banned him from entering the country.
Following the count, Polanski told the media that he had grown up in a Zionist home with the belief that the area was “a land without a people and people without a land”. He added that he no longer held that view and that “what we are seeing is an ongoing genocide and the displacement of the Palestinian people. I believe that is clearly racist.” Activists from Labour and the Liberal Democrats told The Independent that the motion had cost the Greens support in the last days.
Now the new MP. Abdi-Wali, 42, was born in Somalia and arrived as a child refugee in the early 1990s, fleeing the civil war. The Independent reports she was six; other accounts say seven. Her mother, a trained lawyer, fled with her and her four brothers; her father joined later. The family settled in Gospel Oak, where she has lived for about thirty-five years. She joined the Labor Party in 2015, became a local councilor in 2022, and in May became Camden’s first Black woman council leader. She is a British citizen, listed as such on Companies House since at least 2017. Reuters and Full Fact have both described the “asylum seeker” and “illegal immigrant” claims as misleading. Yet we do not know if she arrived in the UK legally or illegally. The public has a right to know how their MP arrived in this country. She is the first Somalian / “British” person to be elected as an MP. She is the 25th Muslim member of the House of Commons and part of a growing number of non-English MPs
In her victory speech, she hoped people who looked like her would see themselves reflected in the area and realize their own path also belonged here; she added, ‘This is Camden, and this is Britain’. Polanski welcomed the part where she said Camden’s diversity was a strength and that its cohesion ‘was too hard won to take for granted’.
But no journalist has asked her in any published interview: how exactly did she arrive? Did she travel on a passport — her own, or a parent’s? Did she have a visa? Which airline did she fly on, and how did she board without documents? Did she claim asylum on arrival, and how long did that process take? These are reasonable questions about a newly elected MP, and they remain unanswered. Her personal immigration file is exempt from FOI, so the only way to get answers is for her to tell us. Did she arrive in the UK legally or illegally?
She has described her arrival only in general terms — “a child refugee, fleeing war-torn Somalia” — and has never been pressed on the specifics. That gap in the record needs to be answered, as a newly elected MP, should be able to do.
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Author: Peter McIlvenna
(@BolsonaroSP) 
(@GuntherEagleman) 