In one last U-turn for the lads, Keir Starmer announced he was stepping down as an MP on Tuesday – convenient timing after he’d just enjoyed nearly seven weeks of paid summer recess. Yes, the man who loved banging on about “public service” decided it was the “right time” to sack off the chore of representing the good people of Holborn and St Pancras.
Starmer said he’ll be leaving parliament to focus on “international affairs”, an area he had a decent opportunity to make a difference in as prime minister – namely, fulfilling the UK’s international legal obligations to prevent genocide – but we all know how that turned out.
As for Starmer’s plan to “continue [his] work on combatting violence against women and girls”, I’m sure lasses around the world are breathing a big sigh of relief that the man who appointed Jeffrey Epstein’s “best pal” to the top diplomatic role in government is on the case.
His decision to step down has triggered a contest in his London seat – and it could be a spicy one. Green party leader Zack Polanski signalled his intention to run on Thursday, pending approval by the party’s local branch.
While this could be a risky move for the Greens at a time when they’re vulnerable – the percentage of Brits who say they intend to vote Green fell to 13% in August, according to YouGov, down from a high of 21% in March – a win for Polanski could also serve as an energising reset for the party.
If he’s successful, Polanski will become the Greens’ first London MP (the party already controls four councils in the capital) and gain a renewed mandate to heap pressure from the left onto newly-minted PM Andy Burnham.
Some of the Greens’ poor recent polling can be attributed to the much-vaunted ‘Burnham bounce’ (although positioning yourself as a charismatic new leader is probably not that hard if you’re following Starmer), while some is a consequence of the media uproar in May around a retweet Polanski made that was critical of how police handled the suspect in the Golders Green stabbing.
A renewed torrent of negative attention from the mainstream press is basically guaranteed if Polanski is selected to run by local Green members – you know, the kind of scrutiny only seen in the Corbyn era.
Andrew Feinstein – the former South African MP who came second in Starmer’s seat in 2024 as an independent, capitalising on anger over Labour’s handling of the genocide in Gaza – has confirmed he won’t be standing. While the Camden Peoples Alliance (CPA) – the community organisation born out of Feinstein’s 2024 campaign – hasn’t formally decided its position, Feinstein called this “a crucial time for progressives in Camden and across the country to be united” (and this journalist hears that the CPA is likely to endorse Polanski).
Holborn and St Pancras has been held by Labour continuously since it was created in 1983. At the 2024 general election, Starmer held the seat with 48.9% of the vote, while Feinstein and the Greens came in second and third with 18.9% and 10.4% respectively. The Tories, Reform UK and Lib Dems trailed behind in single digits.
If the left can get behind one candidate, we’re looking at a two-horse race between a progressive challenger and the establishment party. Camden’s demographics slant fairly young (the average age is in the 30s) with a student population above the national average – both could work in favour of the Greens if they can get people to the polls.
Polanski has already indicated his priorities, telling the Camden New Journal: “Too often Labour has stood up for corporations and big money. I will stand up for people struggling to pay their bills.” While Burnham has positioned himself as a cost-of-living PM, movement on water nationalisation is mixed and we’re all seeing energy bills rise (again) next month.
Labour’s candidate is tipped to be Camden council leader Sagal Abdi-Wali, who immediately became the target of a racist tweet from Reform’s unelected Question Time seatwarmer Zia Yusuf. Reform’s team will have less time for tweeting today, as the party scrambles to limit damage from a Channel 4 and Verbatim Media investigation revealing a “plot to break the law on party funding at the highest levels”.
Forget Nige and the bin in Clacton – there’s room for another Green upset in Camden in the vein of Hannah Spencer’s February victory in Gorton and Denton. The party had the ground game and the strength of candidate, and knocked both Reform and Labour into the rearview. Novara Media hears from a Green source that we’ll see a mobilisation of party activists in “crazy numbers” on the ground again this time around.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say, and the Burnham honeymoon (mostly vibes-based, let’s be honest) won’t last forever.
From Novara Media via This RSS Feed.