Labour has held Holborn and St Pancras, defeating a strong challenge from Green Party leader Zack Polanski in a closely watched north London by-election.
Camden council leader Sagal Abdi-Wali retained the seat for Labour, although the party’s majority fell sharply from 11,572 to 3,364.
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The contest was triggered when former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer resigned as the constituency’s MP. It had been viewed as an important test of whether Labour, under Andy Burnham, could win back voters who had moved to the Greens.
Despite the defeat, Polanski said he would remain Green Party leader.
His leadership has also faced scrutiny over his handling of a motion passed by party members that described Zionism as a form of racism.
Abdi-Wali took 45% of the vote, while Polanski finished on 33%.
Even so, the Greens increased their share of the vote by 22% compared with the 2024 general election.
Conservative candidate Ewan Cameron was a distant third with 1,922 votes, or 7%, followed by Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats.
Labour has represented the inner London constituency since it was created in 1983, securing at least 40% of the vote at every general election.
Speaking after the result at the count in Camden, Abdi-Wali, who arrived in the UK as a child refugee from Somalia, said her victory demonstrated the borough’s commitment to diversity.
“Whether you voted for me or not my commitment to this community runs deep,” she said.
“I hope this moment also says something about who gets to belong, for people who look like me, I hope they see themselves reflected in this place and know that their path too belongs here. This is Camden, and this is Britain.”
She added: “That is what this victory represents. Winning not by making people afraid of each other, but by bringing people together.”
Asked by broadcasters whether he faced a threat to his leadership, Polanski said: “Of course I can carry on as leader of the Green Party.
“Of course, I wanted to win. No-one runs an election to lose.”
He said voters had nevertheless been “excited about our plans for rent controls, tackling the climate crisis and nationalising Thames Water”.
Polanski continued: “So many people told me on the doorstep, so they want to give Andy Burnham a chance [as prime minister].
“Well, he’s got a chance now. Let’s see what he does with it.”
The Greens had hoped to overturn Labour’s sizeable majority after making gains in local elections in the area in May.
Support for the party surged after Polanski became leader in September last year, although opinion polls in recent months have indicated that momentum has weakened.
The by-election also took place amid criticism of Polanski’s response to the motion declaring Zionism a form of racism.
Earlier, former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas told the BBC that Polanski had failed to provide leadership over the issue.
After polls closed but before the result was declared, Lucas criticised Polanski for neither participating in the debate nor voting on the motion at the Green Party’s annual conference in Brighton on Sunday. She described the motion as “dangerous” and “divisive”.
Asked whether Polanski should resign, she said: “I think let’s just see what happens in the coming days and weeks. Obviously he has been completely taken up with this by-election.
“I want him to speak now about what’s happened, I want him to show the leadership that was frankly missing on Sunday.
“I think the jury is out about whether he will do that – but I very much hope he will.”
The motion described Zionism as an ideology supporting “an ethnonationalist Jewish state” and endorsed a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine”, including modern-day Israel.
Polanski was absent when members voted on the motion, having left the conference early to campaign in Holborn and St Pancras.
