Labour picks Camden leader to stand for Keir Starmer's old seat

Camden Council leader Sagal Abdi-Wali has been selected as Labour's candidate in the by-election for Sir Keir Starmer's former seat.

Abdi-Wali, who has led the council since May and has been a councillor for Camden Square since 2022, will stand in Holborn and St Pancras on 8 October.

The seat became vacant after Sir Keir, who resigned as prime minister earlier this year, announced on 1 September that he was standing down as an MP, saying it was the right time to go and to focus on international affairs.

Abdi-Wali said she was "delighted that local members have put their trust in me to be Labour's candidate in the area I've grown up in".

She said: "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."

Green Party leader Zack Polanski, a London Assembly member, is seeking his party's nomination but faces a challenge from local councillor Hamza Chowdhury.

Chowdhury has said the constituency does not need "another MP who arrives during an election campaign" and then "disappears once the votes are counted".

Polanski said on Wednesday he was "proud" to face a rival and rejected the criticism.

"I think the local party already knows that doesn't describe me at all. It's a place that I know very, very well," he said.

Labour has held the inner London seat since it was created in 1983, taking at least 40% of the vote at every general election.

Sir Keir won 48.9% of the vote in 2024, ahead of independent candidate Andrew Feinstein on 18.9% and the Greens on 10.4%. The Conservatives took 7.2%, Reform UK 6.1% and the Liberal Democrats 5.8%.

The Greens made gains in Camden at the local elections in May.

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