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Following the recent by-election in Holborn and St Pancras, much of the attention has unusually shifted away from the declared winner. Sagal Abdi-Wali, the new Member of Parliament for the north London constituency, indeed has a compelling background. As a child refugee from Somalia in the 1990s, she settled in Camden, where she grew up and eventually entered local politics. Four years ago, she was elected as a councillor, rose to become the council leader in May, and has now succeeded Sir Keir Starmer as the MP for the area.
Traditionally, Holborn and St Pancras has been a stronghold for Labour, previously represented by figures such as former prime minister and ex-cabinet minister Frank Dobson. Due to this history, Labour’s retention of the seat brought more of a sense of relief than celebration in political circles. Despite this, the Green Party, under the leadership of Zack Polanski for a little over a year, made significant gains in the recent London local elections. While Polanski did not manage to win the seat, the Greens recorded their second-best result ever in a Westminster by-election, signaling a notable swing since the last general election. Interestingly, the Conservative Party came third, outperforming Reform UK for the first time in an English by-election since the general election—possibly influenced by the presence of Restore Britain, which also attracted votes in a constituency where neither party traditionally performs well.
However, the intense media spotlight during the early hours at Camden Council did not mainly revolve around the election results but rather on a controversial vote taken at the Green Party’s conference in Brighton over the weekend. The party’s activists passed a motion categorizing Zionism as a form of racism. This motion framed Zionism as an ideology supporting “an ethnonationalist Jewish state” and endorsed the creation of a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine,” which includes present-day Israel. Polanski did not participate in the vote, citing his commitment to campaigning in Holborn and St Pancras instead, and initially refrained from commentary amid rising pressure.
In a subsequent interview on BBC Breakfast, Polanski stated that had he been present, he “would have voted for the amendments” to the motion. He elaborated, saying, “the motion as amended I would have voted for, the motion unamended I wouldn’t have voted for,” and described it as “imperfect,” acknowledging parts he agreed and disagreed with. Within the Green Party, this development has sparked intense backlash, with some accusing Polanski of losing control over the party’s direction. Membership has tripled in the past year, a growth some internal critics attribute to an influx of hard-left campaigners primarily focused on Middle East issues rather than environmental policies. Polanski, who is Jewish himself and barred from entering Israel, has faced condemnation from the Jewish Leadership Council, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and sister Green parties in Europe.
Adding to the turmoil, Caroline Lucas, the party’s former leader and a prominent figure within the Green movement, publicly criticized Polanski for not demonstrating leadership on the matter and refrained from endorsing his continued leadership. Despite this, Polanski remains defiant, affirming after the by-election, “of course I can carry on.” While he stopped short of rejecting the party’s motion outright, he did state, “there is an ongoing genocide and the displacement of the Palestinian people,” which he labeled “clearly racist.” Israel, for its part, has consistently denied that its actions in Gaza constitute genocide. When asked about a two-state solution, Polanski expressed that “it is not our role to decide,” emphasizing his responsibility to “reassure people and make sure that we bring our party together” and assuring that “no one will be excluded in the Green Party based on faith and religion.”
Polanski now finds himself at the center of his party’s most significant crisis to date, facing open rebellion from senior figures within as well as widespread condemnation outside. Though the campaign in Holborn and St Pancras has concluded, the controversies surrounding his leadership and the party’s position on this sensitive issue are far from over
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