The odds of the Green Party winning the Holborn and St Pancras by-election have shortened after Zack Polanski confirmed he would seek to stand.
This week, Keir Starmer announced he was stepping down as an MP, meaning his Holborn and St Pancras seat would be vacated and a by-election will be held later in the year.
This was followed by immediate speculation that the North London would be a chance for Green leader Zack Polanski to stand for election.
On Thursday, Polanski confirmed to the Camden New Journal that he would seek to stand as a candidate. He told the publication he would “stand up for people struggling to pay their bills” if he was elected as the representative for the area.”
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Holborn and St Pancras has historically been a Labour stronghold but the Greens have enjoyed a surge in support under Polanski’s leadership, and his announcement has already seen the party’s odds of winning the by-election shorten.
Whilst Labour are clear favourites to hold the seat at 1/3, the Green Party have moved to 2/1 from around 3/1, as per BOYLE Sports.
Reform UK are given odds of 50/1, whilst the Conservatives and Lib Dems both sit at 66/1, so it will be a clear two-horse race in Holborn and St Pancras.
Candidate selections for the by-election are set to be concluded by the end of this week, with a date for the vote likely to be in October.
The Greens will fancy their chances of putting up a strong challenge in a seat that has been held by Labour ever since it was created in 1983.
At the 2024 general election, Starmer won the seat with 49% of the vote, with the Green Party finishing in third behind an independent candidate.
But the Greens have enjoyed a surge in support in central London since Polanski became party leader, winning control of three London borough councils at May’s local elections, along with two mayoralties in Hackney and Lewisham.
The party also claimed a landmark by-election win in Gorton & Denton earlier this year, capitalising on anti-Labour sentiment to win the seat and hold off the challenge of Reform.
The by-election will be Andy Burnham’s first big electoral test, and should provide some insight into whether he is able to unite the left vote or not.