Some reflections on the Holborn & St. Pancras By Election

JVL Introduction

We are not surprised by the hysteria that has greeted the Green Party passing a motion about the racism Palestinians experience as a result not only of actual , living Zionism, but its historical roots too.  This does not mean that everyone who consdiers themselves a Zionist or everyone who supports the idea of a Jewish State as a couinter to centuries of Jewish oppression, pogroms and the Nazi Holocaust is motivated by racism.  The experience for Palestinians – and, indeed for many years for Arab Jews – has been discriminatory at best and murderous at worst.

The analysis of the Holborn and St. Pancras by-election is almost entirely focused on the fact that Zack Polanski did not win and that he lost because of that motion.  Winning the seat was always a long shot and, as Paul Holden describes here, the figures show a much more nuanced picture. Certainly the much heralded “Burnham Bounce” should have led to a landslide rather than a reduced share of the votes even from 2024 and the lowest ever percentage majority. Numerically fewer than 1/3 of the 2024 Labour voters did so this time and Labour’s vote share was slightly down. Holden makes some other comparisons that are interesting.

The Greens got a higher share than their own 2024 vote even when including  Andrew Feinstein’s vote.  Why was there nothing about how terribly the right wing did and whose interest does this angle serve?

This article was originally published by X on Fri 9 Oct 2026. Read the original here.