Zack Polanski has said he will remain as Green party leader even if he loses the Holborn and St Pancras byelection in a high-stakes contest for the left of British politics. Speaking to the Guardian while door knocking in the north London constituency, Polanski calls the Greens underdogs in the race but says he is confident he could beat Labour, which won the seat with a majority of more than 11,000 at the 2024 general election. The seat has been vacated by Keir Starmer, who announced last Tuesdayhe was leaving parliament having resigned as prime minister in June.
The Greens are confident about their chances, with party activists having already “knocked on thousands of doors”, according to Polanski, but the race comes as the party has fallen in the polls. There have been murmurs that it might have reached its peak in dying days of Starmer’s premiership, exemplified by the party’s seismic win in the Gorton and Denton byelection in February. Polanski is not yet formally the Green’s candidate for Holborn and St Pancras but local members are likely to select him.
The race will test the electoral heft of his eco-populist party and Andy Burnham’s Labour. The byelection will be Labour’s first electoral challenge since Burnham became prime minister six weeks ago. Some critics saw Starmer’s decision to announce his intention to leave Westminster on Burnham’s first day in the Commons as prime minister as a way to twist the knife against his successor on his way out of parliament.
Polanski joined volunteers in King’s Cross over the weekend to speak to local voters. It was his fourth visit to the constituency in a week. Should he win, Polanski says he will not move to the area but cycle from his flat in Hackney.
In fact, the length of the constituency is just as fast for me to cycle,” he says. If he does fall short of winning, he says he definitely stay on as Green leader. Polanski appeared popular while canvassing.
Members of the public stopped him several times between knocking doors to express enthusiastic support for him. At one point, an eager procession of young men who say they have seen Polanski on TikTok gather around him before shaking his hand one by one, making off to the side in an orderly fashion once done. Starmer won the seat with a 11,572 majority in 2024.
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