Holborn and St Pancras, United Kingdom – Polls opened earlier today in the London constituency of Holborn and St Pancras, where voters have been presented with a choice of 15 candidates to replace Keir Starmer, the former sitting MP and Labour Prime Minister whose September resignation triggered the election.
Despite the abundance of choice, the victor is likely to be either Labour candidate and Camden council leader Sagal Abdi-Wali or Green party candidate and leader Zack Polanski.
But which key issues have come up during the campaign? Several local residents and campaigners spoke to EU Reports about what their primary concerns are ahead of the vote.
Housing
Image Source: Richard Kelly via Wikimedia Commons
The issue of housing is as important as it is contentious in the economically stratified constituency. In addition to leading the council in Camden, a borough of the capital almost entirely contained within the constituency, Labour candidate Abdi-Wali has been the so-called “Cabinet Member for Better Homes” on the local governance body since 2024.
This role encompasses “specific responsibility for leading on improving council homes and estates, tenant and leaseholder participation and promoting quality private rented accommodation”.
Her record is therefore being closely scrutinized in anticipation of today’s vote. Abdi-Wali boasted in a column written in the Standard yesterday that she had secured £670 million worth of investment to improve local housing.
The Camden Labour council also reports having built 1700 new homes in the area and pledges to construct more while spending millions to tackle local homelessness.
However, Abdi-Wali’s housing record has also come under fire for various reasons; the independent housing ombudsman reported in late 2024 that Abdi-Wali’s department had failed to provide an acceptable standard of service on 90% of housing complaints involving repairs, although many of these were raised before Abdi-Wali’s tenure.
Between 2025 and 2026, the number of Camden households on the social housing waiting list also increased by 9% to 8,380 households, with many on the list reportedly living in overcrowded conditions.
According to figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) the average monthly private rent in Camden reached £2,819 in August 2026, compared to a national average of £1400. Over a third of homes in Camden are privately rented.
Abdi-Wali has pledged to build more affordable housing and support Labour Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s bid to end rough sleeping, an issue that affects Camden more than every other London borough except Westminster, by Christmas.
Abdi-Wali’s principal challenger, Green Party leader Zack Polanski, says that he would push for rent controls, build council housing exclusively and cancel the controversial right to buy scheme, a program which allows council tenants to buy council homes at a discount.
The scheme has been criticized for encouraging private landlordism; approximately 41% of houses sold under the scheme were privately rented as of 2024.
One Holborn and St Pancras resident, who identified herself only as Nikki to EU Reports, emphasized that housing was a key concern of hers going into today’s election
“We are concerned about local housing, local services. I’m a council tenant, but there’s no way that my daughter could become one because there’s no housing,” she said.
She also told EU Reports that she had not yet decided who to vote for but that she wouldn’t back Labour.
Climate change and new oil and gas extraction
Image Source: Raphael McMahon (own image)
Polanski has sought to foreground environmental issues relating to climate change during the campaign after a record-breakingly hot summer in the UK, which the UK’s Met Office says was made 130 times more likely by climate change.
In a piece published in the Standard yesterday, Polanski told the local electorate that a vote for him would encourage Labour to stop implementing pro-fossil fuel policies, such as the potential approval of new drilling for oil and gas, which he says create a “more dangerous climate.”
Burnham’s Labour government is considering whether or not to approve the extraction of oil and gas from the Jackdaw Gas Field east of Aberdeen and the Rosebank Oil Field north-west of the Shetland Islands.
Those in favor of extracting the North Sea fossil fuels argue that they would provide new jobs, increase energy security by decreasing reliance on imported energy and boost investment into the UK.
However, critics like Polanski argue that the inevitable increase in carbon emissions caused by the new drilling would represent a regressive step in the fight against climate change. Polanski advocates for greater investment in renewable energies as a strategy for both job creation and environmental sustainability.
Abdi-Wali has implied, but not confirmed, that she would vote against approving Rosebank and Jackdaw, whereas Prime Minister Burnham has said that he will take a “pragmatic approach” to the issue which accounts for people’s rising energy bills.
One local activist for environmentalist group Greenpeace, who was campaigning in Camden Town, told EU Reports that the organization was not endorsing anyone in the campaign, but was urging the local Labour party to take a firm stance on the issue.
“There is a by-election on Thursday. The Labour candidate has been very silent on climate and the current debate around Rosebank, so we’re telling the Labour candidate: they need to be more vocal, they need to listen to their potential constituents and take climate seriously and pledge not to support any new oil or gas”.
The activist declined to give her name to EU Reports and clarified that her opinions were her own, as opposed to the official stance of Greenpeace.
The Israel-Palestine debate
The Greens have also made foreign policy, specifically the British diplomatic stance towards Israel and Palestine, a key issue in the campaign.
Greens have criticized Abdi-Wali over her stance on Palestine, pointing out that neither she nor any other Camden Labour councillor pledged their support for a local petition calling on Camden Council to divest its pension fund from companies linked to the Israeli military.
Other figures affiliated with The Muslim Vote, a British pressure group established before the 2024 election which seeks to elevate Muslim issues in British politics, have also accused Abdi-Wali of proximity to figures associated with the Israeli Defense Forces, which have been accused by a UN Commission of Inquiry and numerous leading genocide scholars of committing genocide in Gaza.
The Muslim Vote has endorsed Polanski in the election.
Image Source: Raphael McMahon (own image)
However, the issue of Israel-Palestine could also undermine the Greens at Thursday’s vote.
At the recent Green Party conference, Green members voted to approve a controversial motion declaring Zionism, an ideology which supports the establishment of a Jewish state and inspired the creation of modern day Israel, as racism.
The motion called Zionism “an ethnonationalist political project” and called for the replacement of Israel by a single “democratic” Palestinian state.
Its proponents argue Zionism necessitates the elevation of the rights of Jewish people above other groups, and that the establishment of Israel required the mass displacement of Palestinians, whereas critics argue that the motion itself is racist and anti-semitic, alleging that it denies Jewish people their right to self-determination.
The approval of the new policy split the party; four of the five currently sitting Green MPs opposed the motion and Polanski himself did not vote.
The head of the Jewish Greens also revealed that she was considering leaving the party over the motion and the European Greens, a pan-European political party which brings together various national green parties including Polanski’s, declared that the motion contradicted the alliance’s support for a two-state solution and “self-determination” for Israeli Jews as well as Palestinians.
On the doorstep in Holborn and St Pancras, it is unclear how much this policy change will affect the average voter, but a national poll released after the motion was passed shows the Greens on 7% support nationwide, its poorest showing since Polanski became leader in September 2025.
Local Green councillor and Holborn and St Pancras resident Hamza Chowdhury played down the importance of the motion in the by-election.
“I’ve received emails and heard it once on the doorstep [while campaigning], only once out of sixty or seventy doors [knocked],” he told EU Reports.
“I feel like a lot of people are misunderstanding the motion because they are reading a tabloid headline.”
Although Chowdhury acknowledged that some voters could be put off the Greens due to the motion, he also noted that it could help the Greens by energizing support amongst sympathizers with the Palestinian cause in the constituency.
Abdi-Wali said the motion was “worrying for anyone who believes in a two-state solution” and claimed that constituents had told her how “divisive” they found the Greens’ latest policy,
Polls will close at 10PM this evening, and results will likely be announced early on Friday morning.
Featured Image Description: Pro-Palestine protestors face off against a pro-Israel protestor in Camden the day before the by-election.
Image Credit: Raphael McMahon (own picture)
