Is Zack Polanski finished? That’s what everyone’s saying. There’s certainly pressure on him to resign – from former Green leader Caroline Lucas, among others – but even after the Greens “Zionism is racism” motion, he still pulled in 33% of the vote. That’s scary. But then Holborn and St Pancras – mostly Camden Town – isn’t really a typical constituency.
And Labour? David Jeffery at UnHerd:
Burnham will be happy. Abdi-Wali ran a positive campaign and gave the Greens space to implode, while the Greens seemed to forget Labour had a new leader and instead campaigned against Starmer. The demographic makeup of Holborn and St Pancras offered the Greens a plausible route to victory. Instead, their failure to win suggests a party settling around 10%, rather than the 15–20% force it threatened to become. Antisemitism controversies, a polarising leader and a more appealing Labour alternative mean the Green Party’s moment in the sun is turning cloudy.
The Polanski honeymoon is over, and pressure for Burnham to call an early general election will grow. The Greens must be wondering how much of their apparent breakthrough was down to anti-Starmer protest voting, as Burnham’s Labour has bounced back in the polls with evidence that the party’s losses to the Left can be reversed. This morning, the Prime Minister will have some of the hope he has been promising the nation.
I’m not so sure. This was a low turnout – 38.6% – and the Greens still tripled their vote share from the general election. Yes, it wasn’t the triumph they were hoping for after Gorton and Denton, but it wasn’t a disaster. 33% still voted for a now openly antisemitic party.
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