By Alistair Smout
LONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Andy Burnham’s Labour Party won an election for a parliamentary seat vacated by former leader Keir Starmer on Friday, fending off a strong challenge from the left-wing Green Party in a boost for the British prime minister.
Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali, the leader of the local council, won the seat in the central London constituency of Holborn and St Pancras with 12,292 votes, compared with 8,928 for Zack Polanski, the Green Party leader.
The victory, which had been expected, will buoy Burnham, installed as prime minister by lawmakers fearful Starmer’s unpopularity was opening the way for a challenge by the populist Reform UK party at the next national election.
After losing left-wing support to the Greens earlier this year, Labour looks to have won many voters back, a result which triggered more questions about the leadership of Polanski, who had promised to make his party “an eco-populist” movement.
POLANSKI VOWS TO STAY ON AS GREEN PARTY LEADER
The 43-year-old former actor and hypnotherapist, who had some success in drawing voters away from Labour before Burnham came to power, has come under fire after party members passed a motion declaring that Zionism is racism at their annual conference.
The move, which called for “the establishment of a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine” was criticised by Jewish groups, other parties and most Green Party lawmakers. Polanski did not vote on the motion.
After conceding defeat in the fiercely contested by-election, Polanski answered his critics, saying he would stay on as leader, and described the result as part of “Andy Burnham’s honeymoon”.
Yet he did not get a full endorsement from the party’s former leader, Caroline Lucas, who struggled to contain her anger over what she said was his lack of leadership over the motion on Zionism at last week’s conference.
Asked whether he should stay on as leader, she told the BBC: “I think just let’s see what happens in the coming days and weeks.”
“I want him to speak now about what has happened, I want him to show the leadership that was frankly missing on Sunday.”
Labour’s Abdi-Wali, who arrived in Britain as a child refugee from Somalia, said her victory was a defeat for “those who seek to divide us”.
“We have a responsibility to defend what we’ve built and pass it on,” she said.
POLANSKI FACES DOWN CRITICS
It was an early test for Burnham, whose predecessor, Starmer, stood down as a lawmaker in September after being ousted as prime minister in July.
Under Starmer, Labour had also ceded ground to the Green Party, which made record gains in London in May’s local elections with its widening appeal among younger, left-leaning voters in the capital and other urban areas.
The Greens have fallen back in opinion polls since, after Burnham made policy pitches that boosted Labour’s standing among voters to the left, including a tougher line on Israel and a more ambitious approach to relations with the European Union.
Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s chair, said the election result showed the party’s “message of hope is really cutting through”, describing the Greens’ conference motion as something that held “British Jews to a standard that we do not apply to others”.
“We tackled antisemitism in our own ranks but all political parties have to be ever vigilant,” she told Times radio, describing a period when Labour had to deal with antisemitism in the party under former leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Polanski, who is Jewish, was questioned repeatedly after the by-election over the conference vote on Zionism. The Green leader responded by saying that he believed displacement of Palestinian people and “ongoing genocide” in Gaza were racist. Israel rejects claims of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
For now, he said, the Green Party should focus on whether Labour’s first budget under Burnham on October 28 delivers.
“So many people told me on the doorstep that they want to give Andy Burnham a chance,” Polanski told broadcasters. “Well, he’s got a chance now. Let’s see what he does with it.”
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Philippa Fletchera and Toby Chopra)
